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Mark Schlabach, ESPN Senior Writer
Vanderbilt quarterback Diego Pavia sued the NCAA in federal court on Friday, alleging the organization’s bylaws that reduce the number of seasons junior-college players can compete at Division I schools are unlawful and restrict their ability to earn money off their name, image and likeness.
The lawsuit, filed in U.S. District Court for the Middle District of Tennessee in Nashville, requests an injunction that would prevent the NCAA from enforcing its bylaws regarding junior-college player limits and grant Pavia two more seasons of eligibility.
“The JUCO Eligibility Limitation Bylaws neither promote competition nor benefit college athletes with respect to their impact on persons who attend junior colleges before transferring to NCAA schools,” the lawsuit said. “These rules stifle the competition in the labor market for NCAA Division I football players, harming college athletes and degrading the quality of Division I football consumed by the public.
“These harms are contrary to Defendant’s stated mission of promoting the well-being of college athletes and are the very ills federal antitrust law seeks to remedy. Pavia, and other former JUCO football players who are harmed by this illegal restraint, have a small window of time to compete in Division I football.”
The lawsuit argues that the NCAA and its member institutions “have entered an illegal agreement to restrain and suppress competition” and are violating the federal Sherman Act.
The lawsuit said junior-college transfers face eligibility restrictions that “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.”
Pavia, from Albuquerque, New Mexico, told 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 transferring to New Mexico State, where he played in 2022-23. He enrolled at Vanderbilt in June with the belief that he would have only one season of eligibility.
Pavia, 23, has helped revive 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 yards with 15 touchdowns and three interceptions, while leading the team in rushing with 563 yards and four touchdowns.
The Commodores upset then-No. 1 Alabama 40-35 on Oct. 5. They had lost every one of their previous 60 games against top-five teams in the Associated Press poll and hadn’t beaten the Crimson Tide in 40 years.
The lawsuit also takes issue with the NCAA’s bylaws that start a player’s eligibility clock once he enters a two-year school, even if he doesn’t play, as well as its redshirt rule and four-year eligibility limit.
“Because Pavia cannot relive his short college career, the harm inflicted by the JUCO Eligibility Limitations Bylaws is irreparable and ongoing, and temporary and preliminary injunctive relief is necessary,” the lawsuit said.
“Pavia brings this action to put a stop to the unjustified anticompetitive restriction on universities who seek to compete for college athletes, and to restore freedom of economic opportunity for himself and other college football players.”