USC’s DJ Wingfield, UCLA’s Kaedin Robinson denied preliminary injunctions ahead of 2025 season

A judge in the U.S. District Court for the Central District of Californiadenied preliminary injunctions from USC offensive lineman DJ Wingfield and UCLA wide receiver Kaedin Robinson on Monday night, which would have allowed the two to play the 2025 season.

It is the latest eligibility ruling to come down after Vanderbilt quarterback Diego Pavia won a preliminary injunction against the NCAA, granting him a fifth season of eligibility on the argument that the redshirt rule involving junior college eligibility violates antitrust law.

Wingfield and Robinson challenged the legality of the NCAA’s Five-Year Rule, which contends that players are eligible to play four seasons of competition across five years. The decision to file the lawsuit came after the NCAA denied waivers for a final season of eligibility.

In a court filing, Wingfield stated he stood to make roughly $210,000 to play this season for the Trojans. Robinson’s complaint stated he was offered an NIL contract by UCLA worth $450,000.

“This is another illustration of how inconsistent these rulings have been,” Boise State law professor Sam C. Ehrlich told On3. Judges are very clearly disagreeing with each other on a particular legal issue, whether the rules are commercial, and it’s allowing some players to get an extra year and others not to, despite nearly identical relevant facts. This will be — hopefully — resolved in the next few months at the appellate level, but that won’t help the players who justifiably feel like they’re getting treated unfairly just because they unluckily drew the wrong judge.”

With Monday’s decision, it is unlikely the players will be able to play the 2025 season, Ehrlich said. The players can try to ask the Ninth Circuit for an emergency look, but “that’s a high, high, high bar,” he said.

A 6-foot-4, 320-pound offensive lineman, DJ Wingfield started his career at El Camino Junior College, where he played 22 games. Wingfield transferred to New Mexico as a junior but only appeared in one game before suffering a season-ending injury. After redshirting, Wingfield played in nine games with the Lobos as a redshirt junior before transferring to Purdue in December 2023.

The offensive lineman started 12 games in 2024 at right guard for Purdue. Wingfield finished with a 64.3 overall Pro Football Focus grade last year, including a 65.2 run-blocking grade and a 61.5 pass-block grade. He gave up 22 pressures, including five hits on the quarterback and three sacks. He was expected to contribute to an offensive line that lost Emmanuel Pregnon and Mason Murphy to the transfer portal. 

Kaedin Robinson was an All-Sun Belt first-team selection last season. He began his career at ASA Brooklyn before transferring to UCF. Robinson finished with 53 catches for 840 yards, two touchdowns and 15.8 yards per catch in 2024 at App State. After starting his career at UCF in 2021, he played the last three seasons at App State and has career totals of 148 catches for 2,194 yards and 15 touchdowns. He’s averaged 14.8 yards per catch.