Count a Nebraska district court among those that isn't fond of the way the NCAA is doing business, especially when it comes to denying players eligibility.
Earlier this month, 4th Judicial District Douglas County judge Katie Benson dealt another blow to the NCAA's ability to determine just how much eligibility a player gets. This time, the situation involved Omaha basketball player Isaac Ondekane who was granted an injunction by Benson, allowing him to return to the Mavericks for one more season.
While the people who cheer on any NCAA loss in court, this ruling in Nebraska is closer to the Trinidad Chambliss ruling then Brendan Sorsby. Onkedane, like Chambliss is a former JUCO player who gained an extra year of eligibility with the Diego Pavia ruling. However, the Omaha forward was injured last year in the preseason and never played a minute for the Mavericks in the 2025-26 season.
Onkedane took the NCAA to court when it ruled against his hardship waiver for this past season, saying that he can't get such a waiver for an extra "Pavia" year. The 4th District Court in Omaha, Nebraska disagreed.
Nebraska court grants Omaha basketball player Isaac Ondekane eligibility relief
"Ondekane has shown he is likely to succeed on the merits of his claim that the NCAA’s refusal to consider him for a medical “hardship waiver” was a breach of its duty of good faith and fair dealing," Benson wrote in her opinion. "Because Ondekane faces irreparable harm without a temporary injunction, and because the balance of equities and public interest favor granting an injunction to this seriously injured student athlete, the Court grants Ondekane’s motion for a temporary injunction while litigation continues."
While this particular ruling sets itself apart from the court that allowed Sorsby to overcome punishment for gambling on his own team, it does show that even in Nebraska, judges have no compunction about overruling the NCAA and casting serious doubt on whether their old eligibility rules were remotely fair.
Where this ruling does look an awful lot like the Sorsby ruling, the judge legally handcuffed the NCAA and is standing in the way of the entity "restricting, penalizing, or otherwise interfering with" Ondekane’s participation with the Mavs "including but not limited to practice,conditioning, training, scrimmages, exhibition games, regular-season competition, postseason competition, and all other countable athletically related activities."
These kind of ruling continue to be a warning shot across the NCAA's bow showing that state courts are unlikely to side with them, even in any potential litigation that comes from Nebraska getting punished for working outside the established rules for NIL funds.
Rulings for the Nebraska Omaha player is why the NCAA moved to adopt the 5-for-5 eligibility rules. It doesn't want to deal with waivers or hardships or redshirt seasons. Granted, someone will eventually challenge that eligibility rule as well. Someone in Nebraska basketball's Jamarques Lawrence situation who believes they should get another year because of the rule change. It's hard to believe the courts will rule against those players and for the NCAA either.
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