UNLV football coach Dan Mullen did not hold back Tuesday when describing how he feels about defensive lineman Cohen Fuller's ongoing legal battle with the NCAA. Fuller remains on the sidelines amid his eligibility case, and Mullen called the situation nothing short of a tragedy.
Mullen spoke after Tuesday's practice at the Fertitta Football Complex, telling reporters that UNLV is still waiting on an answer in Fuller's case, according to the Las Vegas Review-Journal. The NCAA has said Fuller exhausted his eligibility after playing for UNLV during the 2025 season, but Fuller and his legal team dispute that conclusion. Mullen said he believes Fuller might have been cleared to play already if his case had landed in a different part of the country.
Fuller's path to Division I football has been anything but conventional. He began his college career at NAIA program Graceland University in 2022, then played at El Camino College, a California junior college, in 2023, before transferring to FBS program Coastal Carolina in 2024 and joining UNLV in 2025. According to the Scarlet Standard, Fuller's lawsuit argues that those seasons spent outside Division I competition should not count against his NCAA eligibility clock.
A Legal Fight With Local Roots
Fuller filed his federal lawsuit against the NCAA in U.S. District Court in Nevada in June, represented by attorneys Geoffrey Tabor and Tim O'Reilly, a former UNLV football player and board member of the UNLV Football Foundation, the Review-Journal reported at the time. The case has since wound through a confusing sequence of rulings. Chief U.S. District Judge Andrew Gordon initially indicated on August 3 that Fuller could compete, citing a Colorado court injunction, but later denied Fuller's request for a temporary restraining order on August 28, leaving him officially ineligible.
That Colorado injunction traced back to a separate case, Wisne v. NCAA, in which U.S. District Judge Charlotte Sweeney in Denver ruled in July that players who graduated high school in 2022 and had exhausted their eligibility could compete in a fifth season. The ruling briefly applied nationwide to Division I athletes who entered college that year, according to law firm Steptoe. But on August 21, a three-judge panel of the U.S. 10th Circuit Court of Appeals granted an emergency stay freezing that nationwide injunction pending appeal, according to Football Scoop. After the stay, Class of 2022 players needed their own restraining order or injunction to compete.
An Eligibility Model That Left One Class Behind
The root of the dispute traces back to a rule change the NCAA Division I Cabinet adopted in June, establishing a new age-based “5-in-5” eligibility model that grants athletes five seasons of competition within a five-year window beginning at the earlier of full-time enrollment or the academic year following an athlete’s 19th birthday. The new model excluded athletes who graduated high school in 2022, a decision that, per AP News, sparked a wave of lawsuits across college sports. Because the NCAA excluded that class from retroactive fifth-year eligibility, dozens of individual and class-action suits have piled up in courts nationwide.
Mullen argued that the 2022 class is being held to a different standard than every other class of athletes. He said the NCAA should not claim to act in student-athletes' interests while simultaneously fighting Fuller's attempt to better his own life. Mullen pointed to other players, including former Vanderbilt quarterback Diego Pavia, who made money for the NCAA in 2025, and Mississippi quarterback Trinidad Chambliss, who is doing the same in 2026, as examples of athletes the NCAA has profited from under similar eligibility circumstances.
A Patchwork of Rulings Nationwide
UNLV is far from alone in navigating this legal maze. Ohio Governor Mike DeWine signed an executive order permitting state colleges and universities to allow Class of 2022 athletes to compete in a fifth season regardless of NCAA restrictions. Other programs have built their rosters around individual court injunctions; Sports Illustrated reported that the Kansas men's basketball team added three injunction-cleared players, including former Purdue forward Trey Kaufman-Renn, to its 2026 roster by October.
Fuller, who wears number 0, was seen practicing at the Fertitta Football Complex in Las Vegas on August 5, alongside teammates such as offensive lineman Colton Thomason, who wears number 77. Whether that practice time will translate into game action remains unresolved, with Fuller's request for a temporary restraining order denied as his case continues through the courts.
Looking Ahead to Northern Illinois
UNLV's season continues regardless of how the Fuller case resolves. The Rebels are set to host Northern Illinois at 7:30 p.m. PT on October 31 at Allegiant Stadium in Las Vegas, with the game airing on CBSSN and streaming on Paramount+.
Mullen is leading UNLV amid uncertainty over Fuller's eligibility.
