Midseason transfers are not supposed to exist in college football. Michigan got two on Tuesday.
A Washtenaw County judge granted temporary restraining orders against the NCAA giving tight end Alex Bauman and cornerback Jeremiah Earby an extra season of eligibility, effective immediately. Michigan had been holding roster spots open for them.
The Wolverines host Penn State on Saturday at Michigan Stadium.
What the Order Said
Per National Football Post, Judge Julia B. Owdziej of Michigan’s 22nd Circuit Court wrote that denying the players eligibility would be “irreparable and severe,” while harm to the NCAA would be “negligible.”
Both players filed on September 25. A preliminary injunction hearing is set for November 4. CBS Sports and 247Sports confirm the orders exist and grant the extra year, though neither names the judge, so that detail rests on secondary reporting.
Bauman and Earby are enrolled but had not officially signed as of Wednesday. Both are class of 2022, both went undrafted in the 2026 NFL Draft, and neither landed on an NFL preseason roster.
They Fill Exactly the Holes Michigan Has
This is the part that makes the timing look less like coincidence and more like roster construction by litigation.
Michigan’s passing offense ranks last in the Big Ten. Its leading tight end, Hogan Hansen, has five catches for 35 yards. Bauman is a 6-foot-5, 250-pound tight end who caught 18 passes for 166 yards and a touchdown as a starter at Miami last season, when the Hurricanes reached the national championship game. At Tulane before that he had 63 catches for 610 yards and 13 touchdowns.
Michigan’s pass defense ranks first in the conference, allowing 146.8 yards per game. Earby is a 6-foot-2 corner who started two seasons at Boise State after two at Cal, and who made second-team All-Mountain West last year with 60 total tackles, four interceptions and six pass breakups. His career totals are 155 tackles, 32 pass breakups, seven interceptions and a forced fumble, plus a kickoff return touchdown at Cal in 2022.
Kyle Whittingham Needed Something
Michigan is 3-2 overall and 0-2 in the Big Ten after a 20-14 loss at Minnesota on October 3. Whittingham, 66, is in his first season in Ann Arbor after his long run at Utah, and he has not been subtle about where things stand.
“I’m still trying to figure that out,” he said after the Minnesota loss. “I’ve been in this profession 40-some years, and this is the biggest challenge I’ve had.”
He called the 0-2 league start unacceptable and said everything was in play. Two court-ordered transfers in the second week of October apparently qualifies.
This Is Becoming Normal
Indiana players Kellan Wyatt and Stephen Daley received court-granted fifth years this year. Missouri guard C.J. Gunn won a temporary restraining order against the NCAA this week for a fifth basketball season. The eligibility rules are now being set case by case in county courthouses.
The NCAA has not commented on the Michigan ruling. President Charlie Baker, speaking about a separate eligibility dispute, called one elected official making their own rules “a terrible way to run athletic competitions.”
He is right, and it applies to judges too. The problem is that the NCAA keeps losing these cases, which suggests the rules themselves are the thing that cannot survive contact with a courtroom.
Michigan gets a tight end and a corner. Penn State gets three days to prepare for them.
A longtime sports reporter, Carlos Garcia has written about some of the biggest and most notable athletic events of the last 5 years. He has been credentialed to cover MLS, NBA and MLB games all over the United States. His work has been published on Fox Sports, Bleacher Report, AOL and the Washington Post.