Date Set for Vanderbilt Star Quarterback's Hearing Regarding NCAA Lawsuit
After some disappointing news to begin the off-week for the Vanderbilt Commodores football team, star quarterback Diego Pavia found a bright spot on Thursday in his recent battle against the NCAA.
Pavia’s preliminary injunction for his lawsuit against the NCAA will be held on Dec. 4 at 2:30 p.m. ET in Nashville.
His lawsuit was submitted last Friday to the U.S. District Court of Middle Tennessee. Just a few days later, Judge William Campbel denied his temporary restraining order against the NCAA.
According to the request, the NCAA will have until Nov. 22 to respond for Pavia’s motion to have the preliminary injunction.
This lawsuit stems from the quarterback's feeling that the NCAA's governing body is in the wrong when viewing eligibility requirements involving junior college participation. He believes the NCAA is taking away opportunities that are forcing student-athletes to miss out on the opportunity to cap-limit potential NIL deals.
This lawsuit immediately impacts Pavia, who began his career in junior college at the New Mexico Military Institute.
He believes the JUCO years should not count against his eligibility status. He played two seasons with the New Mexico State Aggies before transferring to Vanderbilt in 2024. If the JUCO years were voided, he would only have three years of NCAA eligibility used.
In his lawsuit, he argued:
"Athletes playing football outside of the NCAA monopoly have no meaningful opportunity to profit off their name, image, or likeness. Even so, JUCO Eligibility Limitation Bylaws restrict the ability of athletes who begin their college football careers in junior colleges from having the same opportunity to profit from NIL as students who enter an NCAA institution as freshmen."
The hope for Pavia is to understand his eligibility status by the time the NCAA transfer portal window opens on Dec. 9.
Once the offseason comes around, it is unclear which situation, if any, would entice him to leave the Vanderbilt program for another school.
When he filed the lawsuit, he stressed that not knowing his status by the portal opening would cause him to suffer “irreparable harm.”
The Commodores still have two games left in the regular season and will play their first bowl game since the 2018 campaign.
