Ole Miss star quarterback Trinidad Chambliss will file a lawsuit against the NCAA in a Mississippi court to secure a sixth year of college eligibility, his lawyer told ESPN on Sunday night.
The NCAA denied Chambliss’ waiver request to be eligible for the 2026 season on Friday. Ole Miss said it plans to appeal the ruling, which follows an informal verbal denial that the NCAA issued to the school in December.
Chambliss, 23, is taking another route through a state court, attorney Tom Mars said in a statement to ESPN, with the plan to file suit toward the end this week for a preliminary injunction. Mars is working with William Liston, a Mississippi trial attorney who also is the founder and general counsel for The Grove Collective, which financially supports Ole Miss athletes, ESPN reported.
“We expect the lawsuit to be far more detailed and documented than other eligibility lawsuits that have been filed in the past year,” Mars said Sunday. “Therefore, considerable work needs to be done before we’ll be prepared to seek an injunction that would allow Trinidad to play next season.”
The NCAA, which declined to comment to ESPN before a lawsuit is filed and referred to Friday’s ruling.
Chambliss had argued in his waiver claim that persistent respiratory issues prevented him from playing in 2022 when he was a redshirt freshman at Division II Ferris State. His performance as an Ole Miss senior transfer in 2025 helped spark the 13-2 Rebels’ run to the College Football Playoff, which ended with Thursday’s 31-27 semifinal loss to Miami in the Fiesta Bowl.
Should the appeal fail, Chambliss will embark on a pro career as a projected late pick in the 2026 NFL Draft.
The NCAA explained its ruling on Friday in a statement that said Ole Miss did not provide contemporaneous medical notes to support that Chambliss’ 2022 illness was incapacitating.
“The documents provided by Ole Miss and the student’s prior school include a physician’s note from a December 2022 visit, which stated the student-athlete was ‘doing very well’ since he was seen in August 2022,” the NCAA statement read. “Additionally, the student-athlete’s prior school indicated it had no documentation on medical treatment, injury reports or medical conditions involving the student-athlete during that timeframe and cited ‘developmental needs and our team’s competitive circumstances’ as its reason the student-athlete did not play in the 2022-23 season.”
Chambliss completed 23 of 37 passes for 277 yards and a touchdown in the Rebels’ last-minute defeat to Miami. His dominant 362-yard, two-touchdown effort fueled a 39-34 upset win over Georgia in the Sugar Bowl on New Year’s Day.
Chambliss was a 66.1% passer in 15 games this season, totaling 3,937 yards with 22 touchdowns against three interceptions. He rushed for an additional 527 yards and eight scores.
The Grand Rapids, Mich., product finished eighth in the voting for the Heisman Trophy. He intended to return to Ole Miss next season had his waiver been approved, with ESPN reporting that his deal with incentives to be worth more than $6 million.
Mars had called the Mississippi judiciary a “level playing field” compared to “some bureaucrats in Indianapolis who couldn’t care less about the law or doing the right thing,” he told ESPN on Friday.
–Field Level Media
