NCAA issues statement on Tyon Grant-Foster being deemed eligible to play for Gonzaga

The governing body defended its enforcement of its eligibility rules in a statement to Gonzaga Bulldogs On SI

Gonzaga Bulldogs forward Tyon Grant-Foster (7). | Photo by Erik Smith

A Spokane County judge granted Tyon Grant-Foster a preliminary injunction during a hearing in court Monday, allowing him to compete in the 2025-26 college basketball season at Gonzaga.

Judge Maria Polin reached her decision after listening to attorneys’ arguments for nearly 3 hours in a Spokane County Superior Court room on Monday, with much of the discussion centered around the NCAA’s view of Grant-Foster’s eligibility. 

On Tuesday, the governing body defended its enforcement of its eligibility rules in a statement to Gonzaga Bulldogs On SI.

“The NCAA will continue to defend its eligibility rules against repeated attempts to rob high school students of the opportunity to compete in college and experience the life-changing opportunities only college sports can create,” the NCAA said in its statement. “The NCAA and its member schools are making changes to deliver more benefits to student-athletes, but the patchwork of state laws and inconsistent, conflicting court decisions make partnering with Congress essential to provide stability for all college athletes.”

The NCAA and the Power Four conferences have recently lobbied for partnership with Congress through a bill called the Student Compensation and Opportunity through Rights and Endorsements Act — otherwise known as the SCORE Act. The bill focuses on codifying the language laid out in the multi-billion dollar House settlement, allowing schools to pay their student-athletes directly through revenue share; prohibits student-athletes from becoming employees; provides a national standard for NIL laws; and provides a limited antitrust exemption that would protect the governing body from lawsuits pertaining to player compensation.

Part of the argument Grant-Foster's legal team made during the preliminary injunction hearing was that by counting Grant-Foster's two seasons at the JUCO level against his eligibility, the NCAA was committing a violation of antitrust. North Carolina attorney Elliot Abrams cited the Sherman Antitrust Act in his defense of Grant-Foster, saying the act was to "enhance competition," and that the NCAA was justifying an "anti-competitive" rule by restricting the pool of players allowed to compete.

Judge grants Tyon Grant-Foster preliminary injunction, allowing him to play for Gonzaga in 2025-26https://t.co/Ctn9htHoqv pic.twitter.com/CCIP9LZr5v

— Gonzaga Bulldogs On SI (@GonzagaOnSI) October 28, 2025

"What's at stake here is the choice of what college is best for a young person — that's the choice [the NCAA's] distorting," Abrams said. "If it's a student-athlete who's not yet academically ready to go to a four year university, and they need some help academically, to where junior college is better, they have to weigh, 'Well, should I go to the place that's best for me now? But if I do that, I'm going to have less time to play in the NCAA labor market, where I'm going to be able to go have a professional career.'"

"This is not the first time, and not the first rule, where this exact same type of market manipulation has been determined to be illegal."

Grant-Foster’s legal team also argued the 25-year-old should get another season because of his rare heart condition, which forced him to miss almost the entire 2021-22 campaign and the entirety of the 2022-23 campaign at DePaul, and that his two seasons at Indian Hills Community College, a non-NCAA institution in Iowa, shouldn’t count against this five-year clock because of the NCAA’s recent blanket waiver allowing all former JUCO players another year of eligibility specifically for the 2025-26 season.

The NCAA’s attorneys claimed Grant-Foster didn't fit the blanket waiver's requirements, stating the 6-foot-7 forward played four seasons with two coming at the JUCO level, and another two at Grand Canyon after he transferred from DePaul.

Matthew Ralph, the attorney representing the NCAA, also defended the governing body's eligibility standards during the hearing.

"The bottom line is, you can't eliminate eligibility overall and maintain the integrity of a type of competition being offered," Ralph said. "For example, the WNBA would not be the same if men were allowed to play; the Paralympics would not be the same [if] able-bodied people were allowed to compete."

The NCAA doesn't have a perfect track record when it comes to enforcing its eligibility rules that state a student-athlete has five years to compete in four athletic seasons. Vanderbilt quarterback Diego Pavia's case against the NCAA is the most well-known instance of a former JUCO player who earned an extra year of eligibility after beating the NCAA in court. That led to the NCAA granting a waiver that extended eligibility through the 2025-26 academic year for JUCO athletes who would have exhausted eligibility after the 2024-25 academic year.