Wide receiver Rodney Bullard Jr. is taking the NCAA to court to get a season of eligibility back to play for Michigan State football this fall. Bullard’s attorney, William H. Horton, filed for a “preliminary and permanent” injunction and “a temporary restraining order (if necessary)” in 30th Circuit Court in Ingham County on Monday, Aug. 17, on Bullard’s behalf, according to court documents. A preliminary show cause hearing in front of Judge Wanda Stokes will be held Aug. 27 in Lansing at the 30th Circuit Court, per court records. MSU opens its season Sept. 4 against Toledo at Spartan Stadium in East Lansing. A message left Tuesday for Horton was not immediately returned.
Bullard is a graduate student at MSU. Horton – a Troy-based attorney with the firm Giarmarco, Mullins and Horton – argued in his filing that the NCAA violated its rules by determining that Bullard is not eligible to play for MSU this season “because he used up his four years of eligibility by being a full-time student in the fall of 2021” at Valdosta State in his home state of Georgia. Horton countered that Bullard was a part-time student in the fall of 2021. The situation revolves around an additional class that Bullard previously had taken at Valdosta State, which dropped his fall of 2021 credit hours from 13 (full-time) to nine (part-time). The court filing said Bullard’s family brought it to the school’s attention in October that year, saying their son had previously taken the class at Albany Technical College while a student at Westover High School in Albany, Georgia. Bullard graduated from Westover High in 2021. While the school confirmed in November that year to the family that it found Bullard completed the class at Albany Tech, it remained on his transcript, the court filing says. In January 2022, Bullard and his mother again contacted the school to remove the class, and Horton wrote that Valdosta State said it would remove it from his record. That did not happen, and Horton said MSU contacted Valdosta State in late 2025 about the matter. VSU officials investigated and found emails which showed the duplicate course had been dropped, but the Valdosta State's registrar's office had not been properly notified, the filing claims. Bullard was issued a new transcript, which took him to part-time status and would not have allowed him to participate in football that year. According to Horton's filing, MSU has requested a waiver from the NCAA "and taken other steps,” but the NCAA "has failed to declare (Bullard) eligible for the 2026-27 season.” Horton argued the “NCAA's recently enacted ‘5-in-5’ eligibility rule, which is not applicable here, retains the ‘full-time student’ status as the starting time for the five-year eligibility clock.” NEW AD: Funding Michigan State football top mission for Dan Bartholomae The NCAA denied the waiver request, arguing in its response to MSU that “the circumstances surrounding [Bullard's] initial full-time enrollment at Institution No. 1 [Valdosta State] did not meet the criteria necessary to restart the five-year period of eligibility" per Division I guidelines. MSU has appealed that ruling, Horton wrote. Bullard arrived at MSU from Division II Valdosta State in January 2025 believing he had two seasons of eligibility remaining. The 5-foot-11, 188-pound wideout had five catches for 119 yards in 131 snaps last season for the Spartans, including a 71-yard touchdown catch from returning quarterback Alessio Milivojevic against Minnesota on Nov. 11, and had a rushing TD on an 8-yard end around against Youngstown State on Sept. 13.
After a redshirt year in 2022, Bullard played in 28 games for Valdosta State the following two seasons, catching 42 passes for 1,001 yards with 12 touchdowns and an average of 23.8 yards per catch in 2024 as the Blazers made it to the Division II national title game before losing to Ferris State. In 2023, Bullard had 43 catches for 566 yards and seven scores and returned 16 kicks for a 24.8-yard average with a 99-yard touchdown return. At Big Ten media day on July 29 in Chicago, MSU coach Pat Fitzgerald said Bullard was “working out every day all summer long [and] he hasn’t missed a beat.” Bullard took reps in full pads with the wide receivers during the open portion of its preseason practice Monday on campus. When asked about Bullard’s status afterward Monday, Fitzgerald said he did not have an update on whether or not he would be able to play in the Sept. 4 opener against Toledo. “He’s practiced full all through,” Fitzgerald said Monday of Bullard’s offseason and preseason workouts. “We’re still not there yet, that [eligibility] process is ongoing.” Contact Chris Solari: csolari@freepress.com. Follow him @chrissolari. Subscribe to the "Spartan Speak" podcast for new episodes on Apple Podcasts, Spotify or anywhere you listen to podcasts. This article originally appeared on Detroit Free Press: Michigan State WR Rodney Bullard taking NCAA to court over eligibility