Vanderbilt quarterback Diego Pavia won a major legal victory Wednesday when a judge granted him an injunction allowing him to play the 2025 season.
Pavia filed a lawsuit against the NCAA in federal court last month, claiming the organization’s eligibility rules for former junior college athletes like him violate antitrust laws. He is currently in his final year of eligibility after spending the first two years of his college career at New Mexico Military Institute.
In the lawsuit, Pavia’s legal team points out discrepancies, such as that the NCAA starts a player’s eligibility clock when he enters junior college, despite not governing junior colleges, and that quarterbacks such as Bo Nix and Dillon Gabriel were able to compete longer than their former JUCO counterparts. .
The court notes that Pavia estimates he could earn more than $1 million if he were allowed to play in 2025. Pavia was previously set to be ineligible after two years at New Mexico State and one year at Vanderbilt.
The order is not a complete victory for Pavia, just a green light from Judge William L. Campbell Jr. that he may begin preparations for the 2025 season, which may include negotiating NIL money and evaluating transfer options. Pavia was ordered because he would have suffered significant harm if he had had to wait for the case to be resolved, even if he had won.
The actual case is still pending, although Campbell has indicated a number of times that he agrees with the plaintiffs’ arguments, even going so far as to say that the NCAA’s justification for restricting JUCO eligibility players “not right”.
As with most NCAA legal battles these days, the big question isn’t about whether the organization could lose, but how bad it could get for an organization that has been regularly demolished in the courts over the past decade. Law professor Sam C. Ehrlich noted that Campbell left the door open for other JUCO athletes like Pavia to challenge the NCAA in a similar manner.
Pavia is having a breakout season this year, leading the 6-6 Commodores to a win over Alabama when it was ranked No. 1 and coming close to also stunning top 10 opponents Missouri and Texas.
