St. Louis City Circuit Judge Jason Sengheiser granted Saint Louis forward Robbie Avila a preliminary injunction Thursday, clearing the Atlantic 10 Player of the Year to play a fifth season of college basketball for the Billikens and giving the team a 16th roster spot until a trial that could be months away — effectively opening the door for the 23-year-old to play the entire season.
The ruling lands one day before Saint Louis plays in-state rival Missouri at the Enterprise Center on Friday night, and Billikens coach Josh Schertz confirmed Avila will be in uniform. Told of the injunction, Schertz said Avila will be dressing and available for sure
for the matchup.
A fifth year, and a 16th roster spot
Sengheiser’s decision does two things at once: it restores Avila’s eligibility and it exempts him from the NCAA’s 15-player roster limit, letting Saint Louis carry him as a 16th player until the case is tried, according to ESPN’s report on the ruling.
Avila, a 6-foot-10 forward, is coming off a season in which he averaged 12.8 points, 4.5 rebounds and 4.1 assists while starting all 35 games for a Billikens team that went 29-6, won the A-10 regular-season title and reached the second round of the NCAA tournament as a No. 9 seed, beating Georgia before losing to eventual champion Michigan. He shot 49.7% from the field and 41% from three-point range. Across 137 career games (132 starts) at Indiana State and Saint Louis, he has averaged 14.5 points, 5.5 rebounds and 3.5 assists.
Saint Louis opened its season Monday with a 92-67 win over Lehigh — without Avila, who was still waiting on a more permanent ruling after an earlier temporary restraining order expired on November 4, just one game into the season, according to Yahoo Sports.
From Cook County to St. Louis City Circuit Court
Avila graduated from Saint Louis, went undrafted in the NBA draft, and made two appearances in the NBA Summer League for the Los Angeles Lakers before enrolling in graduate courses at the university and beginning the legal fight for a fifth year, the, Miami Herald reported. The judge found that letting Avila return would avert a greater injustice, though Schertz cautioned that Avila will need time to regain game fitness.
Part of a wave of 2022-class lawsuits
Avila is the latest college athlete to win eligibility in court after the NCAA announced earlier this year that it was shifting to a five-for-five model — five seasons of play over a five-year period beginning when athletes turn 19 or graduate from high school. The rule was not intended to apply to players from the 2022 class who had already exhausted their eligibility, a gap that touched off lawsuits by athletes across sports nationwide. In most cases, judges have ruled for the plaintiffs, but there is fear that NCAA appeals could ultimately render the players ineligible again, ESPN reported.
Duke coach Jon Scheyer expects the litigation to linger. I think these cases are going to go well into the season,
he said. I think no question you’re going to have cases where certain players get an injunction, they’re eligible for a certain period, and then they’re not.
Avila is not the only player with professional experience in Friday’s game: Missouri forward Mark Mitchell, who will face him, played for the Denver Nuggets over the summer and was part of a Kentucky-filed lawsuit that won eligibility — for now — for 38 football and basketball players. Saint Louis, meanwhile, had already hit the 15-player roster limit this offseason after adding transfers Elijah Strong, Sheek Pearson and Alon Michaeli alongside returning Jax Kerr, Yahoo Sports reported.
