MADISON, Wis. — Wisconsin cornerback Nyzier Fourqurean said he will earn “hundreds of thousands” of dollars in compensation if he receives an injunction enabling him to maintain his eligibility and play for the Badgers this fall.
Fourqurean testified during a U.S. District Court hearing Tuesday. Fourqurean has argued that the two seasons he played at Division II program Grand Valley State shouldn’t count against his college eligibility.
During the hearing, Fourqurean said he earned $5,000 in name, image and likeness opportunities in 2023 and $45,000 in 2024. Fourqurean didn’t specify how much he could earn in 2025 but said it would be “hundreds of thousands.”
On cross examination, Fourqurean said there isn’t a signed contract specifying how much he will receive if he plays at Wisconsin this season.
Fourqurean is hoping to get a decision on his request before Friday’s deadline for opting out of consideration for the NFL draft. He took his case to court last week after the NCAA denied Wisconsin’s request for a waiver granting him another year of eligibility.
U.S. District Judge William Conley didn’t make a ruling Tuesday, but said he’s aware of the narrow window he has before the draft deadline.
Conley had requested to know the amount Fourqurean stood to earn because part of the cornerback’s case involved the NIL opportunities he would lose by not being granted more eligibility. Fourqurean said he received no NIL compensation during his years at Grand Valley State.
Fourqurean’s attempt to continue his college career comes after a U.S. federal judge granted a preliminary injunction in December enabling Vanderbilt quarterback Diego Pavia, who spent two years at a junior college, to get another year of eligibility.
The NCAA is appealing the Pavia case but also issued a waiver enabling athletes who played at a non-NCAA school for more than one year to compete for one more year if they otherwise would have exhausted their eligibility in 2024-25.
A difference in this case, as Conley noted, is that Pavia was at a non-NCAA school during his junior college years, whereas Fourqurean attended an NCAA institution, albeit at a non-Division I level.
Conley also mentioned the possibility he could grant an injunction that later might get overruled by another court, leaving Fourqurean without any college eligibility or any opportunity to enter the draft.
Michael Crooks, the lawyer representing Fourqurean, said their hope is that in that instance the NCAA would do what it did in the Pavia case by offering his client an extra year of eligibility even as it appealed the ruling.
Fourqurean enrolled at Grand Valley State in 2020, when the pandemic led to the season being canceled. He then played at Grand Valley State in 2021 and 2022 before transferring to Wisconsin in 2023.
In the complaint he filed last week, Fourqurean noted that the death of his father in the summer of 2021 impacted his mental health and limited his offseason training that year. Fourqurean participated in 11 games for Grand Valley State but played only 155 snaps.
Lawyers for the NCAA said snap counts shouldn’t be taken into consideration because that would enable former Division II backups to request waivers for those years.
That 2021 season came two years before the NCAA rule change that enabled Division II athletes to redshirt seasons in which they played three games or fewer. Fourqurean noted that as soon as he stepped on the field for the first time that season, he had exhausted his eligibility for that particular year.
Fourqurean had 51 tackles and one interception last season while starting all 12 games for Wisconsin. He started five of the Badgers’ last six games in 2023.
His Tuesday hearing occurred on the same day that baseball player Trey Ciulla-Hall, who also began his college career at a Division II school, filed a complaint in the U.S. District Court of Massachusetts seeking an extra year of eligibility enabling him to play for Maryland this season.
Ciulla-Hall played the past four seasons at Stonehill College in North Easton, Massachusetts. The NCAA announced Jan. 28 that it was denying Maryland’s bid for a waiver granting Ciulla-Hall another year of eligibility.
In his complaint, Ciulla-Hall notes that he participated in one game beyond the normally scheduled legislated limits in 2021 “due to considerable confusion regarding the COVID season of competition relief at the Division II and III levels.” The complaint also notes that Ciulla-Hall faced financial challenges that year as he traveled home to help his siblings while his mother was going through an illness.
