If you’ve been kind-of, sort-of paying attention / not really to what’s going on with Vanderbilt quarterback Diego Pavia and his eligibility – in other words, if you knew only the basics, that Pavia is trying to get another year – then you might be interested in knowing things go a lot deeper than that.
One of the headlines of the story is that Pavia is, indeed, seeking another year of college eligibility. But Pavia’s case could be far more impactful than just how many wins and losses coach Clark Lea and the Commodores have next year.
That is, if Pavia were to even stay.
A Federal judge in Tennessee, Judge William Campbell, approved an injunction this week that would indeed allow Pavia to have another season in college, but what Pavia is actually claiming is that his time at New Mexico Military Institute – a junior college in the NJCAA system – shouldn’t count toward his playing eligibility in college.
In other words, if that happens, it really opens a Pandora’s box for the NCAA regarding junior college athletics.
NCAA rules forever, it seems, have said a college athlete can have five years to get in four seasons of eligibility. That was modified somewhat after COVID-19 a couple of years ago, and athletes in college at the time were granted an extra year.
Pavia’s lawyer, though, Ryan Downton, is flat-out saying that athletes in junior college should have four years of collegiate eligibility on TOP of their junior college seasons.
From Downton: “We’re not saying the NCAA can’t have eligibility requirements,” said Ryan Downton, Pavia’s attorney. “But a junior college season shouldn’t be the equivalent of an NCAA season when the junior college season has no meaningful opportunities to earn NIL, no television exposure. They take other athletes [who are playing somewhere outside of high school] and don’t hold those seasons against them.”
Campbell in the ruling: “Given the different treatment of other student-athletes with comparable or more post-secondary experience, the NCAA’s assertion that the eligibility rules are necessary to prevent age and experience disparities and preserve the quality of experience for student-athletes falls flat,” Campbell wrote in his ruling.
Campbell’s ruling states that the NCAA can’t prevent Pavia from playing again. So what’s next?
More court battles. But if Pavia wins – so might every junior college athlete with the hopes of extending their career to having FOUR years of eligibility after they leave their JUCO, rather than one or two.
As for Pavia, could it mean playing somewhere besides long-downtrodden Vandy?
“He loves Vanderbilt and Coach Lea,” Downton said. “So long as he receives an appropriate NIL package, I expect to see him in the black and gold for as long as he has eligibility remaining and Jerry Kill and Tim Beck are coaching in Nashville.”
Stay tuned.
