Top California football prospect T.A. Cunningham asks for injunction to play after being deemed ineligible

An attorney representing defensive end T.A. Cunningham, the No. 1-ranked football prospect in California in the Class of 2024, filed for an injunction Tuesday in Orange County Superior Court, requesting to reverse a ruling last week from the California Interscholastic Federation Southern Section that determined he was ineligible.

In the offseason, Cunningham, a junior, transferred to Los Alamitos High in Southern California from Georgia, where his parents still reside. The filing from attorney Michael Caspino asks for an «immediate order» that would make Cunningham eligible to play Thursday night.

"[The CIF and CIF Southern Section] have provided no written explanation for their decision to bar [Cunningham] from playing football this season," the filing states.

According to the filing, the ruling from the CIF, California's governing body for high school athletics, «is based on the grounds that [Cunningham] does not meet the definition of a 'homeless student' and/or has failed to establish that his change of schools was due to a 'hardship.'»

Cunningham's petition challenged that assertation by including photographic evidence that his family was evicted from their home earlier this year, resulting in the need to find a new school.

Around the time his family was evicted, Cunningham's father connected with representatives from Levels Sports Group, a would-be sports marketing company created to facilitate name, image and likeness deals, mostly for college and high school athletes.

«The Levels Team promised that the Cunningham family would have a home, transportation and meals in California,» the filing states. «A promise was even made that the Levels Team would provide a separate home in Georgia for [Cunningham's] mother.»

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