AUSTIN, Texas — The NCAA has ruled Texas offensive lineman Cole Hutson ineligible, Texas coach Steve Sarkisian said Monday. The ruling is not tied to the court case that brought Hutson back to the Texas Longhorns for a fifth season.
Something else is behind it, according to what the NCAA told Texas. Sarkisian did not identify the issue. Texas is working to clear it up so that Hutson can play this season.
Sarkisian spoke at his weekly news conference in Austin. Hutson falls under a different category than the other NFL-to-NCAA cases that have moved through college football in recent weeks, Sarkisian said in remarks posted by Tyler Horka of Inside Texas. His situation is not as clear-cut as those. As it stands, Hutson is “technically ineligible.”
“We’ll leave it up to the NCAA,” Sarkisian said.
Steve Sarkisian Says Cole Hutson Sits Apart From the NFL-to-College Cases
Hutson has been on the Texas roster since Aug. 7, when the school announced the 6-foot-5, 308-pound lineman was rejoining the program. The Frisco High School product signed with Texas in the 2022 class. He played in 48 games with 23 starts at center, guard and tackle.
As a true freshman in 2022, Hutson started all 13 games at right guard. He made 10 starts in 2025, five at center and five at left guard. Four seasons in Austin covered 1,959 snaps.
Hutson went undrafted in April. He worked out at rookie minicamps with the Cleveland Browns and the Dallas Cowboys. No contract came out of either one.
Because his eligibility had run out, Hutson never declared for the draft, which meant he never had to withdraw from it. The SEC announced its eligibility policy for players returning from professional football in late August. That policy names three categories. Hutson falls into none of them.
Sarkisian has separated Hutson from that group before. In July, days before the restraining order came through, he did not know where the case was going, and he said lawsuits had been piggybacking off other lawsuits.
“He’s a guy that unfortunately didn’t get drafted, so he puts himself in a bit of a different situation than maybe most guys that got done playing their fourth year in college,” Sarkisian said.
Last week, Sarkisian said pulling a player off an NFL roster at the expense of someone who had spent nine months in a college program was wrong.
How Cole Hutson’s Fifth Year Reached the NCAA
Hutson sued the NCAA on July 17 in Travis County district court, seeking a fifth season under the five-for-five eligibility model the NCAA adopted in June. That model gives athletes five years to play five seasons and starts the clock at initial enrollment or the academic year after a player’s 19th birthday. It was not applied to the 2022 high school class, which finished four seasons in 2025.
A Travis County judge granted Hutson a temporary restraining order in late July. A hearing was set for Aug. 10. On July 31, U.S. District Judge Charlotte Sweeney of Colorado granted a preliminary injunction in Wisne v. NCAA and certified a nationwide class of 2022 athletes. Hutson and the NCAA then signed an agreement classifying him as a member of that class, which made the Aug. 10 hearing unnecessary.
The Tenth Circuit Court of Appeals stayed Sweeney’s injunction on Aug. 21 in a 2-1 decision. NCAA chief legal officer Scott Bearby wrote to member schools that day that class members who had competed because of the Wisne injunction were “no longer eligible to compete.”
Saturday’s opener at Darrell K Royal-Texas Memorial Stadium ended 59-7 over the Texas State Bobcats. Texas averaged 137.8 rushing yards per game in 2025. That was the lowest figure of Sarkisian’s head coaching career.
Ohio State and Texas kick off at 6:30 p.m. CT Saturday on ABC. ESPN’s College GameDay broadcasts from the Texas campus from 8 to 11 a.m. CT that morning.
