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USC offensive lineman DJ Wingfield has been all over during his college career, and he was expecting to finish it out with the Trojans after transferring in this offseason. Wingfield started his career at the junior college level, and he has since played for New Mexico and most recently Purdue. Wingfield has now filed a lawsuit against the NCAA as he attempts to become eligible to play for USC during the 2025 season.
“USC OL DJ Wingfield has officially filed a lawsuit against the NCAA,” Pete Nakos said in a post. “Complaint states he stands to make roughly $210k to play this season for the Trojans.”
DJ Wingfield's plan to hire an attorney surfaced earlier this month after learning that he isn't eligible to play. He thought that he was going to be able to participate in the 2025 USC football season because of a waiver for players who played at a non-NCAA program, but he hasn't been granted the waiver.
“USC OL DJ Wingfield is hiring attorney Darren Heitner in his battle to play in the upcoming 2025 season, @On3sports has learned,” Nakos reported on July 10th. “The previous belief was that Wingfield had a season of eligibility remaining after taking advantage of the NCAA waiver for players who have at least one season at a non-NCAA program. He has not been able to secure the waiver to this point.”
USC is definitely hoping to find a way to get Wingfield on the field this season. So far, he has exceeded the expectations of head coach Lincoln Riley.
“Really impressive, really impressive,” Lincoln Riley said, according to an article from On3. “We obviously thought enough of him to sign him. He’s probably a little bit better than I thought he was, and I thought he was pretty good.”
Experienced guys like DJ Wingfield are transfer portal gems. They come into the program knowing what to expect as they have already done it, and they fit right in without skipping a beat. Wingfield's transition to USC has been seamless.
“He’s one of those guys, you plug him in there and even at the beginning of spring it looks like he’s been with us forever,” Riley continued. “If you came here and watched us, you wouldn’t know that he’s just getting going with us and in our system.”
DJ Wingfield will be an important piece for the USC football team if he is able to play, but the battle is just beginning. We'll see if he is ever able to put on the USC uniform.
