MINNEAPOLIS (AP) — The eligibility chaos across college football has seeped into depth charts for several programs with the regular season fast approaching.
The competition at Minnesota for the place kicking job has sure become complicated.
Brady Denaburg handled that job last year for the Gophers after spending his first three college seasons at Syracuse, and he was out of the picture until a federal judge in Denver ruled on July 31 that athletes from the 2022 high school class were eligible for a fifth year.
The NCAA had previously excluded that class from the new “five-for-five” rule that was designed to add clarity and fairness to college sports in the wild era of the transfer portal, revenue sharing and name, image and likeness earnings.
The Denver ruling was then temporarily halted on Friday by an appeals court injunction, putting thousands of athletes nationwide, like Denaburg, back in the lurch.
“Playing’s in limbo,” Gophers coach P.J. Fleck said after practice on Monday, just 10 days before his team's opener against Eastern Illinois. “I do hope that we come to some resolution at some point about what we’re going to do with all these players, because at the end of the day, if all we say is it’s about the student-athlete, then we have to make the decisions for them. Right, wrong or indifferent, legal cases, all those things, let’s get some direction of exactly what they’re going to be able to do. Because it’s lawsuit after lawsuit, just a ping-pong match that goes back and forth.”
The confusion also has spilled into Indiana's national championship title defense.
Following the initial ruling, sixth-ranked Indiana welcomed back two starting defensive linemen — Stephen Daley, who was the Big Ten's co-leader in tackles for loss (19) last season despite getting injured during the conference championship game celebration, and Kellan Wyatt, who missed the final nine games last season with a knee injury in mid-October.
Daley and Wyatt were practicing, for now, and Indiana coach Curt Cignetti threw his full support behind them on Monday.
“I think in their case, you’re creating opportunities,” Cignetti said. "You look at Wyatt, he started less than half the games last year and got hurt. Then, Daley started six out of 16 games, got hurt. Both had pro potential, but because of injury didn’t end up in NFL camp. We’d have to make no roster cuts if they’re eligible to play. We’re going to support them in their quest to be eligible to play.”
For the Gophers, it's even more nuanced than that.
The federal ruling from Denver was clarified three days later to exclude athletes who'd already signed professional contracts, which prompted a countersuit filed in Louisiana state court that gained a temporary restraining order on Wednesday. Former New Mexico kicker Luke Drzewiecki, who was in rookie minicamp with the Baltimore Ravens this spring, was in that group.
Drzewiecki entered the transfer portal and picked Minnesota, following special teams coordinator Daniel Da Prato, who'd jumped from the Lobos to Gophers this offseason.
With sophomore Daniel Jackson and Michigan transfer Beckham Sunderland, who has begun his third college season, the Gophers now have four kickers in the mix in practice. Anywhere between two and four of them will be eligible to play in the opener, which has obviously complicated the decision for Fleck and Da Prato.
“It kind of reminds you of the 2020 season with COVID. You didn’t know who was going to play. You didn’t know who passed the test right before the game or who wouldn’t pass the test,” Fleck said. “You’d have no idea, so you had to prepare for all of it. In that small scale, it’s kind of a little bit what we’re preparing for.”
With four kickers rotating, the Gophers have spent more time on field goal drills in fall camp than they have in the past. Sunderland also had Da Prato as a special teams coordinator at Texas State in 2024. He has never attempted a kick in a college game, only kickoffs. Jackson took two extra points and three kickoffs last season.
Denaburg was 33 for 33 on extra points last year and 14 for 21 on field goals, missing three of five attempts from 40-plus yards. Drzewiecki sparkled for New Mexico during his senior season, making 36 of 36 extra points and 18 of 19 field goals.
“We don’t know what will happen and who will be eligible and who won’t be eligible. You’d love some answers as soon as possible,” Fleck said. “We’re preparing for some of those guys to be eligible and we’re also preparing for everybody to be eligible, and that’s why this kicking competition continues to go through all the way."
AP Sports Writer Mike Marot in Indianapolis contributed to this report.
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FILE - Minnesota kicker Brady Denaburg attempts a field goal during the first half of an NCAA college football game against Wisconsin Nov. 29, 2025, in Minneapolis. (AP Photo/Tom Baker, File)
WASHINGTON (AP) — The Supreme Court opened a path Monday for possible implementation of President Donald Trump's executive order restricting mail-in voting, though it remains unclear how much can be put in place before the fast-approaching midterm elections.
The decision leaves room for additional court challenges that could further slow Trump's order, and other similar cases have already been filed. The U.S. Postal Service laid out how it would implement the order last week, but time is running short to impose major changes. North Carolina is sending out ballots Sept. 4 overseas and to military voters, and other states will quickly follow suit in just a few weeks.
The Supreme Court's conservative majority didn’t decide the legality of Trump's order, instead ruling that states who sued did not have the legal right to challenge it.
While the emergency order is not final, it does have the potential to create chaos around voting across the country, with Trump often questioning the integrity of elections and the nation's highest court again the possible arbiter of a political controversy.
“The Court’s disposition of this application does not mean that any measure taken by the Government to implement the Order will necessarily be lawful. On that score, time will tell,” the majority wrote in an unsigned order.
The three liberal-leaning justices publicly dissented, with Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson writing that the rule “lets another shoe drop in the Kafkaesque nightmare that our precedents have been steadily creating for certain plaintiffs who seek to bring election-related challenges.”
New York Attorney General Letitia James foreshadowed more legal fights ahead, calling the decision a “painful setback” but vowing it would “not be the final word.”
The court’s order opens a path for the administration to begin action to restrict mail voting, but it also could lead to further litigation that could freeze the federal government again.
“This is just the first inning of a very fast nine-inning game,” said Derek Muller, a law professor at Notre Dame University.
Mail balloting has long been a favorite target for Trump, who has claimed that it breeds fraud despite strong evidence to the contrary and his own use of the voting method.
Trump's executive order, signed in March, calls on his administration to create lists of eligible voters and orders the U.S. Postal Service to deliver mail ballots only to people on those lists. New requirements released Friday would forbid the Postal Service from sending mail ballots from any state that does not comply with Trump’s order.
A Postal Service spokesperson did not immediately respond messages seeking comment. The White House did not immediately respond to a message seeking comment.
Democratic officials in 23 states and the District of Columbia sued to block the order. They argued that the Constitution gives states and Congress the power to run elections, and Trump’s changes could lead to chaos and partisan abuse.
“The consequences of allowing such transformative changes to take effect so close to this fall’s elections would be extreme,” attorneys for the states wrote. Dozens of state and local election officials weighed in, asking the justices to leave the order frozen while election preparations are already underway.
A judge in Massachusetts blocked the plan for the midterm elections in those states. An appeals court upheld her decision. She later granted a second order blocking it nationwide, another remaining stumbling block for Trump administration.
The Justice Department appealed to the Supreme Court on procedural grounds in late July, arguing that the states sued too soon. They also pointed to another ruling out of Washington, where a judge allowed Trump’s order to proceed. An appeals court backed that decision, while still leaving room for future court action if the changes are implemented.
Federal attorneys argued that the Massachusetts order “blocks the government’s ability to finalize and implement the President’s proposed policies to promote election integrity for the upcoming federal elections in November.”
A dozen Republican-leaning states supported the federal government in their own appeal before the high court, saying states would have input on the final voter lists.
The Supreme Court has previously ruled against Trump-backed arguments on mail-in ballots, finding in June that states can count ballots that arrive after Election Day. That case was decided after full briefing and arguments, rather than on the court’s emergency docket.
Trump has blamed mail voting — without credible evidence — for his loss to Democrat Joe Biden in 2020. He has promoted the proposed changes in his executive order as safeguards to keep non-U.S. citizens from voting.
He’s also repeatedly pressed for the passage of the legislation that requires proof of citizenship to vote. Noncitizen voting has been shown to be exceedingly rare, and is a felony that can be punishable by deportation.
Using mail ballots has become increasingly popular with voters of both parties, with about 30% of all ballots cast that way during the 2024 presidential election, according to federal data. The process also is secure. A 2025 Brookings Institution study found only about four cases of fraud out of every 10 million mail ballots cast.
David Becker, a former justice department lawyer who co-wrote a book debunking Trump’s 2020 election lies, said the high court created “pure chaos leading up to the midterm elections, waiting weeks after an administration filing, and just days before mail ballots go out, to completely rewrite the rules.”
Associated Press writer John Hanna in Topeka, Kansas contributed to this story. Riccardi reported from Denver.
An election worker sorts vote-by-mail ballots at the Miami-Dade County Supervisor of Elections Office for the Florida primary election in Doral, Fla., Tuesday, Aug. 18, 2026. (AP Photo/Lynne Sladky)
An election worker places a vote-by-mail ballot into a secure bin at the Miami-Dade County Supervisor of Elections Office during the Florida primary election in Doral, Fla., Tuesday, Aug. 18, 2026. (AP Photo/Lynne Sladky)
