Mailbag: Could Braeden Carrington return to Wisconsin basketball for another season?
A federal court ruling from a judge in Colorado may have opened the door for the Wisconsin Badgers to add a familiar face to their backcourt.
The Wisconsin men’s basketball team entered August with one scholarship available and several possibilities for how to use it.
A federal court ruling may have just introduced the most impactful option. Judge Charlotte Sweeney of the U.S. District Court in Colorado granted a class-wide preliminary injunction requiring the NCAA to give an additional year of eligibility to qualifying Division I athletes who began competing in 2022-23 and exhausted four seasons by the end of 2025-26.
The ruling is temporary rather than a final resolution, and the NCAA is expected to appeal. Regardless, it opens an immediate path for affected athletes to compete during the upcoming season. The NCAA strongly objected to the decision. President Charlie Baker argued that continued court intervention has made it increasingly difficult to enforce uniform eligibility rules nationwide and renewed his push for congressional action.
“Without Congress, failed professionals will continue to use college sports as a fallback option — robbing the next class of young athletes of college scholarships,” Baker said, referring to the proposed Protect College Sports Act. “Today’s rulings and the chaos they bring to college sports are exactly why it’s time to pass this bill.”
Regardless of where the court case ultimately lands, one player who could benefit immediately from the injunction is former Wisconsin guard Braeden Carrington — which raises the question:
Q: Does this week’s court ruling mean Braeden Carrington could return to Wisconsin, and would the Badgers want him back?
- Mike in Sun Prairie
