Diego Pavia is setting the stage to challenge for a potential seventh year of eligibility. The Vanderbilt quarterback’s motion for a preliminary injunction against the NCAA was granted in Dec. 2024, allowing him to play a sixth year.
Pavia argued that the NCAA’s redshirt rule involving junior college eligibility violates antitrust law. Following the ruling, the NCAA issued a blanket waiver for 2025-26 that granted an extra year to athletes who previously “competed at a non-NCAA school for one or more years” and otherwise would have exhausted their NCAA eligibility following the 2024-25 season.
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In a hearing Tuesday in the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit, Pavia’s attorney said that unless the rules are not found to be subject to antitrust, they’re going to stack on a challenge to the redshirt rule and ask for an injunction so Pavia can play in 2026, according to sports law professor Sam Ehrlich.
Pavia wrote on X later that “this my last year.” He initially filed a lawsuit in November 2024 against the NCAA, arguing that because the governing body counts junior college seasons towards NCAA eligibility and athletes cannot redshirt after they have played four years, NCAA rules violate antitrust law. Pavia also argued that this forced athletes to miss out on NIL dollars.
In June, Diego Pavia said he was offered $4 to $4.5 million to transfer. Sources have told On3 that the quarterback is making north of $2 million this season. Pavia’s injunction resulted in more than 30 college athletes filing lawsuits seeking additional eligibility.
“A big part of the hearing was about whether the NCAA’s appeal was moot, meaning that the appellate opinion wouldn’t actually affect anything and thus doesn’t really matter, because Pavia would still be able to play for 2025 based on the waiver, and the appeal is on an injunction based on that waiver,” Ehrlich told On3. “Pavia’s attorney argued that the appellate decision is still relevant because if the court finds that the rules are commercial and thus subject to antitrust law, he’ll be filing for a new injunction or an expedited trial schedule at the district court seeking to play 2026 as well.
“It makes sense given that his attorney is also involved in the new class action lawsuit challenging the four seasons rule overall, and Pavia would be seeking — if you take the JUCO year out of the picture — his fifth season in five years.”
The NCAA has had some success in the courtroom against these lawsuits, while some judges have cited that eligibility rules must comply with antitrust law and others have said the rules unlawfully restrain a labor market. The NCAA has argued that the House v. NCAA settlement enforces the five-year rule.
Diego Pavia transferred to Vanderbilt for the 2024 season after spending two seasons at New Mexico State. The 2023 Conference USA Offensive Player of the Year did not hold an FBS offer out of high school. A native of Albuquerque, New Mexico, Pavia spent two seasons at the New Mexico Military Institute to begin his career.
He led Vanderbilt’s upset of Alabama in 2024, breaking the Commodores’ streak of going 0-60 all-time against AP top-five teams. Diego Pavia returned to Vanderbilt in 2025 and is off to a 3-0 start, ranked No. 20 in the latest AP Top 25 poll.
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