NCAA appeals Diego Pavia lawsuit; grants eligibility waiver for JUCO players

The NCAA announced Monday plans to appeal the preliminary injunction granted by a U.S. federal judge giving Diego Pavia another year of eligibility even as the organization’s Division I board of directors granted a waiver allowing athletes in a similar situation as the Vanderbilt quarterback to play in 2025-26.

When U.S. District Judge William L. Campbell issued the injunction Dec. 18, it was limited only to Pavia, arguing that he was likely to win on his argument that NCAA Division I eligibility rules discriminated against him under the Sherman Act over his two years at a junior college. The judge also told the NCAA it couldn’t take any action against Vanderbilt or any university Pavia plays with for his fifth season.

The waiver announced Monday should limit the filing of more lawsuits by other athletes who started at a junior college and want another season to access name, image and likeness opportunities.

Specifically, the board’s waiver is for those athletes “who attended and competed at a non-NCAA school for one or more years to remain eligible and compete in 2025-26 if those student-athletes would have otherwise used their final season of competition during the 2024-25 academic year, and meet all other eligibility requirements (e.g., progress toward degree, five-year period of eligibility),” according to a statement from the NCAA.

The Division I Board of Directors and Division I Council authorized a review of eligibility last June designed to create a sustainable framework that can withstand scrutiny.

“That review already resulted in action to modernize collegiate sports,” according to the NCAA statement. “The review includes all aspects of student-athlete eligibility, and Division I is committed to advancing the discussion during January governance meetings.”

Campbell noted last week that current NCAA bylaws had made Pavia ineligible to play Division I football in 2025 simply because the quarterback started his career at a junior college.

The judge wrote he was not persuaded by NCAA arguments on Division I eligibility limiting athletes who start at junior colleges to three or four years. He noted the NCAA does not start the eligibility clock for prep school athletes even when they compete athletically against junior colleges or other schools that count as “collegiate institutions.”

Campbell also wrote how the NCAA’s eligibility rules have evolved from when freshmen weren’t allowed to play to adding a redshirt rule. The judge also wrote that Pavia has a “strong likelihood of success” under the Sherman Act at trial because the organization’s rules limiting junior college eligibility are “restraints on trade with substantial anticompetitive effects.”

Pavia filed his lawsuit seeking an additional season Nov. 8 in the U.S. District Court for the Middle District of Tennessee in Nashville. He has applied to Vanderbilt’s masters’ program for legal studies starting in January, and he is scheduled to play for the Commodores (6-6) on Friday in the Birmingham Bowl against Georgia Tech.

Reporting by The Associated Press.

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