Northwestern center Jackson Carsello is eligible to play college football in 2026 after receiving an injunction Monday in Cook County court in Illinois.
Carsello initially was ruled ineligible by the NCAA this spring after applying for a waiver for a sixth season.
The NCAA argued that Carsello — who played in 32 games over the last three seasons, including 13 starts in 2025 — was not eligible for a waiver as his redshirt should have been used in 2021. He practiced but was unable to play any games as a true freshman due to an ankle injury, with Carsello viewing his 2022 season, where he played four games, as his proper redshirt.
Cook County Circuit Judge Neil Cohen sided with Carsello.
“Mr. Carsello didn’t impose a high-ankle sprain on himself in order to dodge the rules of the NCAA,” Cohen said in his ruling. “… You have his own coach saying, ‘I wouldn’t put him in, he was damaged, it would be unhealthy, it would be a violation, ‘ — my terms, not his — ‘of the whole purpose of the NCAA, which is to guarantee the safety and health of a student-athlete.
“I admire the NCAA, and I thank them for the process they went through, but they got it wrong in this case. I imply no bad faith in their getting it wrong, but they got it really wrong.”
Carsello is the latest football player to receive an injunction to play this fall, joining Ole Miss quarterback Trinidad Chambliss and Oklahoma linebacker Owen Heinecke.
Texas Tech quarterback Brendan Sorsby also got an injunction in the wake of his NCAA suspension for gambling on his own team and other college football teams. However, he has since applied to enter the NFL’s supplemental draft, which also would have been an option for Carsello had he not been granted the injunction.
