Jaxon Kohler just handed the NCAA another public loss and handed BYU a starting big man in the same afternoon, and I am not interested in pretending those two facts are unrelated. A 6-foot-10 Utah kid who averaged 12.5 points and 8.9 rebounds at Michigan State, shot nearly 39 percent from three, and somehow went undrafted in 2026 is now a Cougar for a fifth season because a California court told the association it could not slam the door. That is not a feel-good transfer story. That is the sound of eligibility bylaws cracking in real time.
I have watched this league long enough to know when a homecoming is also a power play. Kohler is from American Fork. That is fourteen miles from the Marriott Center. He is a member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. Kevin Young needed a frontcourt presence after losing No. 1 pick AJ Dybantsa to the NBA. The fit is obvious. The timing is the indictment.
The Injunction Was the Real Signing Day
Let me walk you through what actually happened, because the people still clutching the old rulebook are hoping you will not. Kohler played four seasons at Michigan State. He started 69 games over his final two years, helped the Spartans to an Elite Eight and a Sweet 16, earned All-Big Ten honorable mention, and then signed an Exhibit 10 with the Utah Jazz and played Summer League. Under the old framework, that should have been the end of his college career. The Class of 2022 got left holding the bag while the NCAA talked about a future five-in-five model that did not cover them.
Then the courts moved. A Colorado preliminary injunction opened the door for that class. In California, the temporary restraining order hit with language that left no room for NCAA spin. “Plaintiffs’ Application for a Temporary Restraining Order is GRANTED,” the ruling states. “Defendant NCAA, and its officers, agents, employees, representatives, successors, assigns, and all persons acting in concert or participation with it, are hereby temporarily restrained and enjoined from enforcing NCAA Bylaw 12.6, or any other NCAA bylaw, to preclude Plaintiffs from competing in NCAA Division I athletics during the 2026-2027 season on the basis that Plaintiffs have already competed in four seasons of competition.”
That is not a suggestion. That is a federal court telling the association to sit down. Kohler entered the portal. Michigan State was already full. He talked to Kentucky for two and a half hours on Zoom. He met with BYU. On Thursday his agent, Adam Godes, told ESPN the decision: Kohler had committed to BYU for his fifth season. Jon Rothstein got it straight from the player himself. The man chose home, chose a coach who needed him, and chose the program that could put him on the floor immediately.
I SAID the Class of 2022 lawsuits were going to rearrange rosters. Nobody wanted to hear it in March. They are hearing it now.
Kevin Young Just Built a Problem for the Big 12
Look at what Young has assembled while half the country was still arguing about whether these guys should even be eligible. Kentucky transfer Collin Chandler. Veteran Rob Wright III. Five-star forward Bruce Branch III. And now Kohler, a physical 245-pounder who can stretch the floor and clean the glass. That is not a patchwork portal haul. That is a nucleus with size, skill, and experience in a league that still pretends experience is optional.
Greg Sankey is already in a Louisiana court trying to prop up the old rules while RJ Luis Jr. and others chase their own pathways. Fine. Let the commissioners file motions. Let the NCAA appeal. The temporary order is live. Kohler can play. Every day he logs minutes in a BYU uniform is another day the association looks like it is litigating against reality.
I have watched kids get buried by eligibility technicalities for years. I watched the transfer portal turn into a free-agency free-for-all while the NCAA still pretended it ran a coherent system. Kohler’s path is the cleanest illustration yet. He did the work at Michigan State. He took his shot at the next level. When the draft passed and the summer-league contract did not turn into a roster spot, the courts gave him one more season. He took it. He took it in Provo. That is not loophole shopping. That is a professional decision by a grown man who still has basketball left.
The people outraged by fifth-year injunctions need to decide what they actually want. Do they want players who signed professional contracts forever banned from college gyms, even when the NBA said no thanks? Or do they want the best available talent on the floor while the legal process sorts itself out? Because the judges have already answered. The portal window for these plaintiffs opened and closed. Kohler is a Cougar. The rest is noise.
BYU did not stumble into this. Young identified the need, worked the relationship, and closed on a local product who can start tomorrow. Dybantsa is gone. The void is filled. If the NCAA’s appeal somehow lands and yanks these players midstream, that will be an unmitigated disaster of the association’s own making. Until then, Kohler is eligible, he is home, and he is about to make life miserable for Big 12 frontcourts that thought they had the matchup advantage.
Fourteen miles. Twelve-point-five and eight-point-nine. A temporary restraining order that read like a verdict. That is the whole case. I rest it.
