MADISON – Wisconsin men’s basketball and Braeden Carrington appear to have picked up a key victory in Carrington’s legal fight for a fifth season of eligibility.
A California judge issued an injunction in the Glancey vs. NCAA case on Oct. 20 that allows Carrington and the other plaintiffs to remain eligible for a fifth season of college basketball in 2026-27, according to reports from CBS Sports' Jon Rothstein and others.
The NCAA has consistently appealed rulings like this one, so Carrington’s legal fight is not necessarily over. But the injunction would keep the Wisconsin guard eligible to play in the meantime with fewer than two weeks before the regular season begins.
Carrington initially became eligible when the judge granted a temporary restraining order in August, which made it hardly a surprise that the court would rule favorably on the injunction as well. The NCAA has previously expressed confidence in its legal outcomes, however, when such cases reach a higher court.
“We intend to defend our rule because every time we’ve been able to defend it in front of a higher court, they’ve sided with us,” said Tim Buckley, the NCAA’s senior vice president for external affairs, in a September interview with the Journal Sentinel.
Carrington has practiced with the Badgers and played in their first two exhibition games of the 2026-27 season. That included a 20-point performance on 5-of-7 shooting in the Badgers’ Oct. 15 exhibition win over UW-Green Bay.
His continued eligibility is a huge plus for the Badgers after he averaged 8.3 points per game off the bench and shot 40.2% from 3-point range in his lone season in Madison. He transferred to UW after two years at Minnesota and one year at Tulsa.
UW coach Greg Gard previously told reporters on Sept. 16 that the Badgers “wanted to walk down this road as far as we could until we either got a green light or a red light.”
“We knew with Braeden all along it’s going to be a roller coaster, regardless of what happens on the 20th,” Gard said at UW’s local media day on Oct. 6. “We’re prepared for that. … Since the portal and everything that has gone on in college athletics, it’s allowed us to take a little different view of everything and understand we just focus on things you can control.”
This article originally appeared on Milwaukee Journal Sentinel: Wisconsin's Braeden Carrington stays eligible after injunction | Reports