MORGANTOWN, W.Va. — The immediate impact of Wednesday’s ruling from U.S. District Judge John Preston Bailey to issue a 14-day, temporary restraining order against the NCAA and the organization’s ability to prevent two-time undergraduate transfers from immediate eligibility could lead to a major shakeup as it pertains to West Virginia’s men’s basketball program.
However, it remains to be seen if RaeQuan Battle or Noah Farrakhan are involved in competition for the Mountaineers over the course of the next two weeks starting with Saturday’s 6:30 p.m. game against Massachusetts in the Basketball Hall of Fame Classic at the Mass Mutual Center in Springfield, Mass.
“We’re still in limbo and a lot of schools are in limbo trying to get questions answered,” WVU interim head coach Josh Eilert said. “Fortunately, we don’t play until Saturday evening and we’re hoping to get those answers sooner than later.”
In the Ohio v. NCAA case heard Wednesday in downtown Wheeling, Attorneys General from seven states, including West Virginia, challenged the NCAA’s antitrust laws in an effort for student-athletes not to be forced to miss a season’s worth of competition upon transferring a second time.
Both Battle and Farrakhan were prohibited from playing in the Mountaineers’ first nine games of the 2023-24 season.
Battle, a fifth-year guard who previously played two seasons at Washington and two more at Montana State, had a waiver for immediate eligibility denied by the NCAA. An appeal to that decision was also denied.
Farrakhan, who played a season at East Carolina to begin his college career and more recently two at Eastern Michigan, is a 6-foot-1 senior with two years of eligibility remaining. Before Wednesday’s court ruling, it was assumed Farrakhan would not play this season and WVU did not file a waiver on his behalf.
In addition to blocking the NCAA from enforcing aforementioned transfer rules until at least the next hearing December 27 when a more permanent ruling is expected, the TRO also makes it so that the NCAA cannot penalize schools that decide to play anybody, who up until Wednesday had not been permitted to compete in games, through the date of the next hearing on that final Wednesday in 2023.
Thus, if Battle and/or Farrakhan were to play in any or each of West Virginia’s three games between now and December 27, the NCAA could not later impose penalties against the Mountaineers for utilizing either player.
“Indications are and reports are the institutions are protected during the 14-day window, but the biggest question to me is the eligibility concerns and whether that would burn a year by playing in that 14-day window,” Eilert said.
That’s where the issue lies in deciding whether Battle or Farrakhan will play Saturday.
If either player logs a second of game time against the Minutemen or on December 20 against Radford and December 23 against Toledo, and Wednesday’s ruling is overturned on December 27, each player could have then exhausted a season of eligibility to appear in no more than three games for WVU.
“If the decision is overturned and they play during this course of the season and they lose that year of eligibility, that doesn’t seem like we made the right decision by the student-athlete,” Eilert said. “I want all the facts to be laid out for everybody involved before we make those decisions. That’s the right way to handle things and approach things.”
As of Thursday afternoon, Eilert was still trying to gather details of how a potential overturn of Wednesday’s ruling in the near future would affect the eligibility of Battle and Farrakhan should they suit up for the Mountaineers over the next two weeks.
According to a report from The Athletic, the NCAA sent updated guidance to its members Thursday afternoon informing schools that athletes can lose a year of eligibility by playing during the 14-day window that the TRO covers, even in the event the order reversed at the next hearing and they’re permitted to play only during this two-week stretch.
“It just needs some more clarity more than anything. Selfishly, we can think both of them could really help us, but we have to think about the student-athlete and how it affects their overall eligibility,” Eilert said. “RaeQuan has one year of eligibility left and Noah has two. Those conversations have to be had with those student-athletes, their families and our department to figure out what’s best for them and us as a program.”
From Wednesday to Friday, West Virginia can see the direction other schools with athletes in similar situations to Battle and Farrakhan go in and whether or not they opt to play them.
Keylan Boone, a two-time transfer, made his debut for UNLV on Wednesday in a win over Creighton several hours after the TRO was issued across the country.
“Every situation is different. They might have had that conversation and understood the risks associated with that conversation and they chose to do so,” Eilert said. “I’m not going to make a rash decision that will affect a kid’s future by any means without knowing all the facts and details.
“There have been a lot of late night phone calls and late night calls with coaches that understand the forefront of this battle with RaeQuan. They’ve called and asked our advice and we’re all kind of in the same boat. We don’t really have answers. They’re wanting to know what we’re going to do, but we’re going to do right by understanding the facts of the situation before we make any crazy decision.”