Last week, a District Court in Colorado granted an injunction to Class of 2022 athletes who were not grandfathered into the NCAA’s new five-in-five eligibility structure, ruling them eligible for the 2026-27 athletic year, pending an NCAA appeal.Â
The injunction includes athletes who completed their four seasons of eligibility in four years and who did not sign a professional contract following this offseason. That includes former Florida State quarterback Tommy Castellanos, but he wants to take it a step further.Â
On Thursday, Pete Nakos reported that Castellanos, with the help of big-name college sports attorney Darren Heitner, is suing the NCAA to enter the transfer portal. If he wins, it will open the floodgates for chaos across college football and college sports, but it will also make Castellanos one of the more coveted players suddenly available to join a new team.Â
So, who are the best fits for Castellanos at both quarterback and as an athlete?Â
3. Duke
Manny Diaz got blindsided at the end of the Transfer Portal, not only losing his star quarterback Darian Mensah to Miami, but also losing Mensah’s top target, wide receiver Cooper Barkate. Well, if Castellanos is truly interested in returning as a quarterback or an athlete, Duke could give him the chance to do both.Â
San Jose State transfer Walker Eget, who is certainly not a runner, is competing with redshirt freshman QB Dan Mahan. Whoever wins that competition could be spelled by a package of plays for Castellanos and rely on him as a top pass-catcher out of the slot.Â
It’d be a desperate move for Diaz, but losing Mensah and Barkate means it's desperate times for the defending ACC Champions.Â
2. UNLV
Realistically, much of the interest Castellanos is reportedly receiving is likely from the Group of Six level. There, even if it takes him time to learn the offense, he’d be such a superior athlete at the quarterback position that it wouldn’t matter.Â
Why UNLV, one of the presumptive top contenders for the G6 bid into the College Football Playoff, though? Well, because Dan Mullen brought in Jackson Arnold to be his starting quarterback after Anthony Colandrea left for Nebraska, and so far he has yet to beat out Alex Orji, which is not a good sign. Castellanos is the closest thing in college football to Colandrea, so maybe Mullen would be better off bringing another undersized playmaker at the QB position to try to win the Mountain West.Â
1. Kansas
After a two-year stint at Penn State, offensive coordinator Andy Kotelnicki is back with Lance Leipold in Kansas. While Kotelnicki helped Penn State reach the CFP semifinal in 2024, Drew Allar’s progression stalled, primarily because he was never a good fit for Kotelnicki’s option-based, motion-heavy attack, which thrives when it has a mobile QB at the controls.Â
It’d be a new system for Castellanos to pick up, but the Cole Ballard-Isaiah Marshall contest is one of the more uninspiring QB battles in the country. Castellanos would be a perfect fit and an immediate upgrade, even if it’s just as a gadget player early in the year as he gets up to speed with the offense.
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