Vandy QB Pavia taking legal action against NCAA over eligibility rules

• Mark Schlabach, ESPN Senior Citizen WriterNov 9, 2024, 10:31 AM ET

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  • Senior college football writer
  • Author of seven books on college football
  • Graduate of the University of Georgia

Vanderbilt quarterback Diego Pavia took legal action against the NCAA in federal court Friday, alleging the company’s laws that minimize the variety of seasons junior college players can compete at Division I schools are illegal and limit players’ ability to earn money off their name, image and likeness.The suit, submitted

in U.S. District Court for the Middle District of Tennessee in Nashville, demands an injunction that would prevent the NCAA from implementing its laws regarding junior college player limits and grant Pavia 2 more seasons of eligibility.” The JUCO Eligibility Restriction Bylaws neither promote competitors nor benefit college athletes with respect to their effect on individuals who attend junior colleges before moving to NCAA schools,”the suit says. “These guidelines stifle the competitors in the labor market for NCAA Department I football players, hurting college athletes and deteriorating the quality of Division I football taken in by the public.”These harms contrast Offender’s specified objective of promoting the wellness of college athletes and are the extremely ills federal antitrust law looks for to remedy. Pavia, and other previous JUCO football players who are damaged by this prohibited restraint, have a small window of time to contend in Division I football.”The lawsuit argues that the NCAA and its member organizations “have actually entered an illegal agreement to limit and reduce competitors”and are breaking the federal Sherman Act.The lawsuit says junior college transfers face eligibility restrictions that “are not put on professional athletes who choose to delay entry to a Division I NCAA college to participate in prep school, serve in the military, and even to compete professionally in another sport. “Pavia, from Albuquerque, New Mexico, informed ESPN last month that he didn’t have a single FBS or FCS scholarship offer coming out of high school. Only two Division II schools– Western Colorado and Western New Mexico– gave him a chance to play quarterback.He played two seasons at New Mexico Military Institute, a two-year junior college, before moving to New Mexico State, where he played in 2022 and 2023. He enrolled at Vanderbilt in June with the belief that he would

have only one season of eligibility.Pavia, 23, has actually assisted restore Vanderbilt’s once-moribund program. The Commodores are 6-3 heading into Saturday’s game against South Carolina( 4:15 p.m. ET, SEC Network/ESPN +) after losing their final 10 games in 2023. Pavia has passed for 1,677 lawns with 15 touchdowns and three interceptions while leading the group in rushing with 563 backyards and 4 touchdowns.The Commodores upset then-No. 1 Alabama 40-35 on Oct. 5. They had lost each of their previous 60 games against top-five groups in the Associated Press survey and had not beaten the Crimson Tide in 40 years.The lawsuit also takes issue with the NCAA’s bylaws that begin a player’s eligibility clock once he goes into a two-year school, even

if he does not play, in addition to its redshirt rule and four-year eligibility limit.” Because Pavia can not relive his brief college profession, the damage inflicted by the JUCO Eligibility Limitations Bylaws is irreparable and ongoing, and short-lived and

preliminary injunctive relief is essential,”the lawsuit states.”Pavia brings this action to stop the unjustified anticompetitive constraint on universities who seek to compete for college athletes, and to bring back flexibility of financial chance for himself and other college football players. “