A judge cleared Bauman and Earby to play. Michigan hasn't listed either
Temporary restraining orders make tight end Alex Bauman and cornerback Jeremiah Earby eligible this season, pending a Nov. 4 hearing. Michigan plays 3 games before it, starting with Penn State on Saturday.
Michigan's tight ends have caught 9 passes in 5 games. On Tuesday a judge in Ann Arbor made two players enrolled at Michigan eligible to play this season: a tight end who caught 18 passes at Miami last year, and a cornerback who was second-team All-Mountain West at Boise State.
Alex Bauman played 3 seasons at Tulane and 1 at Miami. Jeremiah Earby played 2 at California and 2 at Boise State. Washtenaw County Circuit Judge Julia B. Owdziej granted each of them a temporary restraining order against the NCAA and ruled both eligible this season, 18 days after they filed on September 25, according to court records cited by Field Level Media. Keeping them off the field, she wrote, would be "irreparable and severe," while the harm to the NCAA would be "negligible," per ESPN.
Bauman's filing says he has been admitted to Michigan and is enrolled in its School of Social Work, MLive reported, and the Michigan Daily reported that Earby is enrolled there too. Neither was on the roster at mgoblue.com on Wednesday.
What the order does, and for how long#
Both men graduated from high school in 2022. The NCAA's five-for-five rule, adopted in June, lets current athletes play 5 seasons in 5 years and did not reach back to that class, which is why a player with 4 seasons already played needed a judge to get a fifth. Bauman's order, as MLive described it, directs the NCAA to open the transfer portal for him and let him "participate immediately at any NCAA Division I institution during the 2026-27 season." Earby entered the portal on Wednesday morning, Sports Illustrated reported.
A restraining order is temporary by design. The hearing on a preliminary injunction, which would carry the eligibility further, is set for November 4. Between now and then Michigan plays 3 games: Penn State at home on Saturday at 3:30 p.m. Eastern on CBS, Indiana at home on October 24, and Rutgers on the road on October 31. Whatever the two men can do for this team before the hearing, they have those 3 Saturdays to do it in.
What each one changes#
Bauman is 6-foot-5 and 250 pounds. He caught 63 passes for 610 yards and 13 touchdowns in 3 seasons at Tulane, according to MLive and Field Level Media, including the game-winning touchdown against USC in the Cotton Bowl as a true freshman. At Miami last season he caught 18 passes for 166 yards and a touchdown on a team that reached the College Football Playoff final.
Through 5 games, Hogan Hansen has 5 for 35 yards, Jalen Hoffman 3 for 25 and Eli Owens 1 for 5, per CollegeFootballData's season totals, and none of the 9 went for a touchdown. Of Michigan's 69 completions, 49 have gone to two players, JJ Buchanan with 24 and Andrew Marsh with 25.
Earby is 6-foot-2 and 186 pounds. In 2025 at Boise State he had 4 interceptions, a career high, and 13 passes defended, which tied for the Mountain West lead, and he was second-team all-conference, Sports Illustrated reported. He made 28 starts at cornerback in 2 seasons there. The Michigan Daily wrote that Michigan is not short of talent at cornerback, and opponents have completed 80 of 129 passes for 734 yards against Michigan in 5 games, per CollegeFootballData. For Earby, the order changes whether he plays at all this year. For Michigan, it adds a cornerback with 28 college starts to that secondary.
A recent comparison is Braxton Fely, the Boise State defensive tackle who won a restraining order in September and transferred to Oklahoma. He has appeared in 2 games for the Sooners and has not recorded a statistic, Sports Illustrated reported. Eligibility gets a player onto the roster. Whether he gets on the field is a separate question.
What Michigan and the NCAA have said#
Michigan has not commented. A team spokesman declined comment to MLive and to ESPN, and the Michigan Daily reported that he declined to discuss Earby because neither player has officially signed. CBS Sports reported on Wednesday that both will play for Michigan this season, and Field Level Media reported that Michigan has held roster spots open for them. Neither report is the program's own.
The NCAA had not responded to ESPN by Wednesday. On Tuesday its president, Charlie Baker, answered a different challenge to the same rule, an executive order from Ohio Gov. Mike DeWine that lets Ohio schools play 2022 graduates in a fifth year. DeWine "cannot legislate NCAA eligibility rules," Baker wrote to member schools, per ESPN.
Michigan is 3-2 and 0-2 in the Big Ten under Kyle Whittingham, its first 0-2 conference start since 2014, per ESPN. If either player is going to help change that before a judge looks at the orders again, the first sign will be his name on the roster.
Sources: ESPN, "Michigan judge rules 2 Wolverines eligible for this season," October 14; Aaron McMann, The Ann Arbor News/MLive, October 14; Field Level Media, October 14; Sports Illustrated (Boise State Broncos On SI), October 14; The Michigan Daily, October 14; mgoblue.com football roster; CollegeFootballData 2026 season statistics.
