Jordan Pope will play basketball in Moody Center after all, but he won't be wearing burnt orange.
Pope, who played two seasons for Texas basketball as part of a four-year collegiate career, signed to play with Longhorn rival Texas A&M on Monday after receiving a fifth season of eligibility following a court injunction in Pope's home state of California.
Pope, a Californian and the team's starting point guard from 2024-25 through the 2025-26 campaign, spent two years at Oregon State before playing two seasons with Texas. He averaged 13.1 points and 1.9 assists in 29.0 minutes a game last season.
Along with dozens of other collegiate athletes across the country, Pope was granted a fifth season of collegiate eligibility after filing a lawsuit against the NCAA.
MORE: Longhorns ready to meet suddenly high expectations, says Sean Miller
Starting next season, the NCAA will fully implement an age-based eligibility model that grants collegiate athletes five years regardless of playing time, a requirement commonly known as the "five-for-five" rule. The model, which effectively removes the redshirt concept, calls for an athlete's eligibility clock to start upon initial full-time enrollment in college or at the beginning of the academic year following their 19th birthday, whichever occurs earlier. The age-based eligibility implementation began this summer. Recruits starting in 2027 are age-based only.
Currently enrolled athletes with eligibility remaining after the 2025-26 academic year will be allowed to apply the age-based model or continue with the previous eligibility rules, whichever is most beneficial to that individual.
MORE: See photos from the final summer practice as the men prep for their 2026/27 schedule
All class of 2022 recruits such as Pope and classmate Chendall Weaver who recently played their fourth year of college were not grandfathered into the age-based model. However, that cutoff prompted a wave of court actions across the country, which has essentially granted one more year of eligibility to every class of 2022 athlete.
Earlier this summer, Texas coach Sean Miller said he wished Pope and Weaver well but said he had no room on his roster. When Texas recruit Marcus Spears Jr. reclassified from the 2027 class into 2026 earlier this month and joined the Longhorns for this upcoming school year, he became the 15th and final player on the Texas roster. The House vs NCAA settlement in 2025 removed scholarship limits for all sports but imposed roster limits beginning with the 2025-26 school year. That means men's basketball teams had their scholarship limit increased from 13 to 15 but can no longer have more than 15 players on the roster. It also means Texas - and most college programs - no longer have walk-on players like Anthon McDermott, the only former walk-on who's now on scholarship for the Longhorns.
Texas A&M currently has 16 players listed on its roster, including walk-on Preston Clark, an Austin native and Westlake High School graduate who spent three seasons on the Texas roster. With Pope's arrival, Aggie coach Bucky McMillan will have to trim two players from his roster.
Texas A&M will visit Texas Feb. 16 and host its SEC rival March 6.
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This article originally published at Jordan Pope, a former Texas Longhorn, joins Texas A&M basketball after getting fifth year.