Oklahoma State DB Kobe Hylton Out of Eligibility, Will Not Play in 2025
It appeared that a key defender for Oklahoma State would be back next season, but it appears his college football career is over instead.
On Wednesday, OSU defensive back Kobe Hylton withdrew from the transfer portal, setting him up for another season in Stillwater. Hylton transferred to OSU last offseason after two years at UTEP and had a solid first season with the Cowboys.
However, his situation changed on Thursday, according to Tyler Waldrep of the Tulsa World. Despite the NCAA extending another year of eligibility to players who played at the junior college level, it appears that will not apply to Hylton. Hylton’s only season at a junior college came at NEO in 2020. Considering that season is already used as an extra year of eligibility due to the pandemic, the new ruling might not apply.
After it seemed that he would be back in Stillwater for the 2025 season, Hylton’s fate was simply out of his hands. Hylton took to Twitter to comment on his situation.
“Despite having 1 year of eligibility left I cannot play due to my “clock being expired”. Therefore I will prepare for pro day. I appreciate everyone who took the time to recruit me!”
Considering all of the absurdity of NCAA eligibility in the era of the pandemic, transfer portal, NIL and more, Hylton not getting another year to play seems to just make him incredibly unlucky. With a fifth year of eligibility for all student-athletes currently being thrown around, there is not much players in a situation like this can do except hope others down the line won’t have similar issues.
Hylton finishes his OSU career with 40 tackles, one tackle for loss and one interception while playing in all 12 games last season. Along with a successful tenure at UTEP, Hylton’s FBS career concludes with 186 tackles, 12 tackles for loss and four forced fumbles.
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Ivan is a sports media student at Oklahoma State University. He has covered OSU athletics since 2022 and also covers the OKC Thunder for Inside The Thunder and Thunderous Intentions.