Darrion Williams Is Back at Texas Tech, and a Court Ruling Is Why He Could Be

Darrion Williams has signed with Texas Tech for the 2026-27 season, returning to the program he left a year ago.

Head coach Grant McCasland announced the signing. Williams comes back after spending last season at NC State.

What he did before

Williams began his college career at Nevada, then played two seasons at Texas Tech.

His junior year in Lubbock, 2024-25, was his best. He averaged 15.1 points, 3.9 rebounds and 3.6 assists, earned All-Big 12 First Team honors, and helped carry the Red Raiders to the Elite Eight of the 2025 NCAA Tournament.

At NC State last season he led the Wolfpack at 14.0 points per game, with 151 rebounds, 92 assists and 35 steals.

The ruling behind the signing

The reason a fifth-year forward is available at all traces to a courtroom rather than a transfer portal.

A U.S. District Court judge in Colorado ruled last week that players from the high school class of 2022 who exhausted their fourth season of college eligibility this spring are eligible for a fifth season this school year.

Williams is in that class. So is Stillwell, the other player Texas Tech signed under the same ruling.

That decision reopened rosters across the country in August, well after the normal recruiting and portal calendar had closed. Programs that had already finalized their lineups suddenly had both an opportunity and a problem: veteran players became available, but scholarship math set months earlier had to absorb them.

Why it matters beyond Lubbock

For Texas fans, the practical effect is that one of the better players in the Big 12 in recent seasons is back in the conference rather than in the ACC.

For college basketball generally, the ruling is another step in the courts reshaping eligibility rules that governing bodies used to set on their own. Each such decision changes who is on the floor in a given season, and it does so on a legal timetable rather than an athletic one.

Texas Tech opens play in the fall. The Red Raiders reached the Elite Eight in 2025 with Williams, which is the standard his return will be measured against.

Sources

texastech.com

kcbd.com

washingtonpost.com