Trapped in a legal limbo, a standout guard fights for her final season as restrictive transfer rules collide with a sudden loss of her roster spot.
Kyla Deck may have another season of college basketball available to her. There's just one pretty significant problem: she may not have anywhere to play it.
The former SMU guard filed a federal lawsuit against the NCAA and SMU on Tuesday, arguing that the NCAA's transfer portal window and subsequent restrictions for women's basketball violate federal antitrust law, Front Office Sports reported.
And getting to this point requires a little explaining.
Deck started the first 13 games of last season for the Mustangs, averaging 10.1 points, 3.8 steals and 2.0 assists while shooting 39.6 percent from 3-point range before suffering a season-ending injury.
Deck and SMU applied for a waiver that would have allowed her to play another season because of a previous injury, according to the lawsuit.
She planned to return to SMU.
So there wasn't much reason to enter the transfer portal.
Then things got complicated.
A federal judge granted a preliminary injunction on July 31 that required the NCAA to provide a fifth season of eligibility to Division I athletes from the 2022 freshman class who had already completed four seasons of competition.
Deck was among the thousands of athletes who gained another season as a result.
But by the time that opportunity arrived, SMU told Deck it no longer had a roster spot available for her, according to the complaint.
Normally, the answer would seem pretty simple.
Find somewhere else to play.
Except Deck hadn't entered the transfer portal during the designated window because, again, she planned to return to SMU.
And the NCAA could still enforce its transfer restrictions against players granted another season under the July 31 ruling.
That's how Deck wound up suing both the NCAA and the program she played for last season.
Deck is seeking an injunction preventing the NCAA from enforcing those transfer restrictions against her, along with damages.
She isn't asking a court to force SMU to keep her, provide athletic aid or require another program to recruit her.
She just wants the opportunity to find another one.
And somehow, the situation has gotten even more complicated since Deck filed her lawsuit.
The Tenth Circuit Court of Appeals granted the NCAA's request Friday to stay the July 31 injunction while its appeal continues, temporarily suspending the class-wide fifth season that created Deck's path to another year in the first place.
That doesn't resolve Deck's separate lawsuit.
But it does add another layer of uncertainty to a situation that didn't have much clarity to begin with.
Deck's case could still be worth watching beyond what happens with one former Mustang.
A favorable ruling would apply only to her, but Front Office Sports noted that her decision to challenge the transfer restrictions in federal court on antitrust grounds could potentially set a precedent for other players.
Other players granted newfound eligibility have challenged the NCAA's transfer restrictions through state-level lawsuits.
Deck is taking a different route.
And after spending months planning to play another season at SMU, her college career could now depend on two separate questions being answered in court.
Whether she's allowed to play. And, if she is ... whether she's allowed to go somewhere else to do it.
