Badgers CB sues NCAA over D-II eligibility issue

Wisconsin cornerback Nyzier Fourqurean sued the NCAA on Wednesday, alleging his five-year eligibility clock shouldn't have been running during his two seasons at Division II Grand Valley State.

Fourqurean also states in the lawsuit that the NCAA is denying him an opportunity to profit from his name, image and likeness by failing to award him additional eligibility with the Badgers.

The NCAA denied his request for a waiver for additional eligibility Wednesday, his attorneys told the court in the complaint filed in the U.S. District Court in Madison, Wisconsin.

In the lawsuit, Fourqurean's attorneys asked the court to grant a temporary restraining order and preliminary injunction that would prevent the NCAA from enforcing its bylaws pertaining to its five-year rule for eligibility, three-year eligibility limits for transfers, and to rule that Fourqurean's first season at Grand Valley State be considered a missed opportunity under NCAA rules because of the death of his father in 2021.

Fourqurean's attorneys asked a judge for injunctive relief from the court because he has until Feb. 7 to declare for the NFL draft. Fourqurean participated in the Hula Bowl, an all-star game that showcases potential NFL draft picks, earlier this month.

The complaint alleges the NCAA violated the Sherman Antitrust Act and other federal laws.

"Said actions include, but are not limited to, preventing college student-athletes like plaintiff that attended Division II schools from competing in a third and fourth year of NCAA Division I football due to prior attendance at a Division II school, therefore limiting their economic opportunities to participate in the NIL marketplace available to Division I athletes, and otherwise unreasonably restrain competition in violation of Section 1 of the Sherman Act," the lawsuit said.

Fourqurean, a senior from Mentor, Ohio, signed with Grand Valley State out of high school. The 2020 season at the Division II school in Michigan was cancelled because of COVID-19 restrictions.

Fourqurean's father died during the summer of 2021, causing him to miss weeks of offseason training, according to the complaint.

"Combining the setback in summer training/conditioning, the death took a toll on plaintiff mentally as he prepared for his first season of collegiate-level football and his first significant return to football since his senior year of high school in 2019," the complaint said.

Fourqurean played in 155 snaps over 11 games at Grand Valley State in the 2021 season, the lawsuit said. He had four interceptions in 13 games in 2022 and was named a Division II All-American by the Associated Press before transferring to Wisconsin in May 2023.

Fourqurean started five games for the Badgers in 2023 and all 12 this past season, totaling 51 tackles with one interception.

On Dec. 23, the NCAA Division I Board of Directors approved a blanket waiver granting an additional year of eligibility to former junior college transfers, opening the door for a wave of college athletes across all sports to spend one more year in college athletics.

That waiver didn't apply to athletes, like Fourqurean, who transferred from Division II and Division III programs.

According to an NCAA memo, the waiver extends an extra year of eligibility in 2025-26 to athletes who previously "competed at a non-NCAA school for one or more years" and otherwise would have exhausted their NCAA eligibility following the 2024-25 season.

The NCAA's December decision came five days after a federal judge in Tennessee granted an injunction to Vanderbilt quarterback Diego Pavia, who had sued the NCAA over its eligibility standards, arguing that the organization's rule of counting a player's junior college years against his overall eligibility violates antitrust laws by restricting athletes' ability to profit from their name, image and likeness.

The NCAA has appealed the federal judge's ruling in the Pavia case.

ESPN's Eli Lederman contributed to this report.