Tennessee’s Zakai Zeigler files suit against NCAA, difficult redshirt rule
Zakai Zeigler completed his athletic eligibility at Tennessee with the end of the Volunteers’ 2024-25 males’s basketball season. However, the guard has actually submitted a lawsuit against the NCAA seeking a 5th year of eligibility.Zeigler has actually currently played
4 seasons for Tennessee and didn’t begin his college career until 2021, one year after the 2020-21 class that was allowed another year of eligibility lost throughout the COVID-19 pandemic.Advertisement In the claim, filed in the Eastern District Court of Tennessee, Zeigler is seeking a preliminary injunction that would allow him to play the 2025-26 season. He is challenging the NCAA rule that an athlete has 4 years of eligibility within a five-year window.Zeigler, 22, isn’t enabled a chance to make NIL cash for a 5th year due to the fact that he’s used up all of his eligibility. As the suit argues, that denies him of a 5th year,”the most financially rewarding year of the eligibility window for the large bulk of professional athletes.”How profitable? The lawsuit argues that Zeigler might make in between$2 million and $4 million in a fifth year based upon his record of success and visibility playing in the SEC. Those figures are forecasts from the Spyre Sports Group, which helps with Tennessee’s NIL collective.Advertisement Professional athletes who receive a redshirt are permitted a 5th year of eligibility, which gives them another year to earn NIL income. A freshman who was redshirted, for instance, would still be able to
earn NIL cash even if he or she doesn’t play.As the filing, the documents of which were published online by Boise State teacher Sam Ehrlich, checks out:”Many players, nevertheless, do complete in the 5th year of their eligibility window. And they can earn NIL payment for all 5 of those years.
Had actually Zeigler been withheld from completing in sports during among those 4 years, possibly by redshirting, the NCAA guidelines would allow him to take part again next year. And this holds true even if he would have slowed his academic development and taken five years to finish.”Zeigler graduated in May, majoring in retail and retailing management, and would pursue an academic degree during a fifth year of eligibility.This is different from the suit Vanderbilt quarterback Diego Pavia filed against the NCAA, claiming that he needs to be enabled a 5th year of eligibility since he played his first two years for New Mexico Military Institute, a junior college. In December, Pavia was given an injunction allowing him to play the 2025 college football season.Advertisement Last season with the Vols,
the 5-foot-9 Zeigler averaged 13.6 points, 7.4 helps and 1.9 takes while shooting 32 %on 122 3-point attempts. He was called a third-team All-American, and won first-team All-SEC and SEC protective player of the year honors for 2 successive seasons. The Volunteers ended up 30-8, 12-6 in the SEC, and advanced to the NCAA tournament’s Elite Eight before
losing to Houston.Zeigler holds
the Tennessee single-season( 275 )and profession(747)records for assists, and profession takes with 251.