Vanderbilt QB Diego Pavia sues NCAA in effort to add another year of eligibility

Diego Pavia’s lawsuit against the NCAA takes specific issue with the limitations put on former junior college players like him. (Photo by Michael Chang/Getty Images)

Diego Pavia wants another year of eligibility and is taking the NCAA to court to get it.

The Vanderbilt quarterback filed a lawsuit against the NCAA in federal court Friday, claiming the organization’s rules about eligibility for former junior college athletes breach antitrust rules. The full lawsuit, filed in the U.S. District Court of the Middle District of Tennessee, can be read here.

Pavia is currently in his final year of college eligibility while playing for the Commodores. He began his college career at New Mexico Military Institute, a junior college, then transferred to New Mexico State after two seasons. He played two more seasons for the Aggies before landing at Vanderbilt.

At its most basic level, Pavia’s lawsuit argues that a number of NCAA bylaws, such as the five-year eligibility clock and rules governing redshirts, unfairly restrain the market for former junior college players.

Junior colleges are not governed by the NCAA, but by the National Junior College Athletic Association. Its athletes are able to earn NIL money, but Pavia’s legal team notes that the financial opportunities are extremely limited compared to Division I sports. So they are arguing that by only allowing players three years of remaining eligibility at best after two JUCO years, the NCAA is illegally restricting their earning potential.

The lawsuit takes issues with a number of alleged imbalances in the NCAA’s regularly changing rulebook, such as athletes having their eligibility clock started when they enter a two-year institution, even if they don’t play. It specifically complains about Bo Nix and Dillon Gabriel being allowed to not just compete but start for their teams in five seasons due to the COVID-19 extension, a benefit Pavia didn’t receive at NMMI.

The crux of the argument:

Despite what the NCAA may claim, the JUCO Eligibility Limitation Bylaws restrain college athletes from improving their economic opportunity, personal growth, and wellbeing with NIL opportunities, through a full four-year college playing experience, a freedom afforded to all athletes who enroll at NCAA Division 1 members as freshmen, but not to junior college football player transfers. This restriction violates the Sherman Act because it has direct anticompetitive effects that harm college football players and consumers of college football.

In essence, the JUCO Eligibility Limitation Bylaws amount to no more than an agreement to limit the amount of time athletes may play Division I football because they have chosen to attend a non-NCAA institution prior to transferring to a Division I NCAA college. These same restrictions are not placed on athletes who choose to delay entry to a Division I NCAA college to attend prep school, serve in the military, or even to compete professionally in another sport.

The lawsuit requests an injunction preventing the NCAA from enforcing the rules it claims violate antitrust laws and that Pavia be granted one or even two more years of eligibility at Vanderbilt. Pavia turns 24 years old in April.

Pavia’s move is interesting at a number of levels thanks to the NCAA’s brutal series of losses in court over its governance in the past few years. It’s unclear what his chances in court are, but a win would further limit the NCAA’s authority over student-athletes.

In statements to The Athletic, Pavia said he needed relief soon in order to be able to negotiate with Vanderbilt’s NIL collective:

“I would like to return to Vanderbilt next year, but need time to negotiate NIL deals before the transfer portal opens,” Pavia said in a statement through his attorneys. “If the transfer portal opens before I can complete negotiations with Anchor Impact [Vanderbilt’s collective], I will be trapped between abandoning those negotiations, or foregoing possible opportunities with other colleges who may recruit other quarterbacks out of the transfer portal before I can enter.”

Vanderbilt head coach Clark Lea also released a statement praising Pavia but noting what he would be forced to do if the court didn’t grant the injunction:

“Diego is a strong leader and great player for the Vanderbilt program and I would love to have him back next year. However, I cannot leave the team and program in limbo while an extended process plays out for Diego. Unless and until Diego gets a court ruling in his favor, I must proceed with building a roster without him.”

Pavia has reached a level of college football folk heroism this season by virtue of Vanderbilt’s historic wins over Alabama and Auburn, which the lawsuit specifically mentions. He has particularly tortured Auburn head coach Hugh Freeze, beating him twice earlier during his time at New Mexico State in addition to this year’s win.