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A federal appeals panel on Wednesday dismissed the NCAA’s eligibility case against Vanderbilt quarterback Diego Pavia, who is playing this season under a preliminary injunction.
All three judges agreed with the dismissal for lack of jurisdiction in a quick ruling returned after hearing only oral arguments Sept. 16 in Nashville. Judge Amul R. Thapar noted Pavia won the preliminary injunction before the NCAA hurt its appeal by granting a waiver to athletes in his position.
“The NCAA gave Pavia exactly what he wanted — a waiver that guaranteed he could play for Vanderbilt in 2025,” Thapar wrote. “Because that waiver provides Pavia complete relief at the preliminary-injunction stage, we dismiss the NCAA’s appeal as moot.”
Pavia started playing at New Mexico Military Institute in 2020. (The NCAA did not count that season toward eligibility because of the COVID-19 pandemic.) He led the junior college to the 2021 national championship, then played at New Mexico State in 2022 and 2023 before transferring to Vanderbilt for 2024, making this season his sixth overall in college football but only his fourth at the Division I level.
The NCAA pointed to what Thapar said on page 15, where he wrote “Congress should consider stepping in to preserve these benefits for the millions of young athletes yet to come. Until it does so, judges should tread carefully in this area and insist on a thorough record from which to rule.”
Tim Buckley, the NCAA’s senior vice president of external affairs, pointed to the SCORE Act with bipartisan support in Congress along with the backing of athletes from all three divisions.
“The SCORE Act is the only bill in Congress that would protect the NCAA’s longstanding academic eligibility rules — ensuring high school athletes get an opportunity to play in college,” Buckley said.
An attorney for the NCAA argued last month that the organization believes its rules determining athlete eligibility do not violate the Sherman Act or other antitrust laws. Rakesh Kilaru also said the NCAA intends to enforce its rules.
The NCAA granted a waiver after the injunction allowing eligibility through the 2025-26 academic year for junior college athletes who would have exhausted eligibility during the 2024-25 academic year.
A federal judge agreed last December that Pavia had a strong likelihood of success at trial against the NCAA rule limiting junior college players’ eligibility as a restraint of trade under the Sherman Act.
“If the NCAA had not issued a waiver, we would have had time to review the injunction and hand down a decision before the end of the 2025 season,” Thapar wrote for the panel. “Instead, in late 2024, the NCAA committed to allowing Pavia to play, so the mootness of the appeal made expedited review through the appellate process less important.”
The panel said its review was limited to the preliminary injunction only and does not affect Pavia’s lawsuit from continuing at the U.S. District Court level.
Pavia’s attorney Ryan Downton pointed to a key comment in Judge Whitney D. Hermandorfer’s concurrence: “As I currently understand things, that’s not because the NCAA can immunize any trade restraint from review by deeming it ‘eligibility’ related. Otherwise, the price-fixing in Alston could pass unscrutinized if recast as a rule rendering ineligible any player receiving excessive benefits.”
The NCAA is facing several eligibility lawsuits, and Downton has another lawsuit over the NCAA’s redshirt rule restricting athletes to playing four seasons with a redshirt season over five years with Vanderbilt linebacker Langston Patterson a lead plaintiff.
“In other words, both the JUCO and redshirt rules are subject to United States Antitrust laws — a threshold issue in both the Pavia and Patterson cases,” Downton said in a statement.
Pavia is a big reason why Vanderbilt is ranked No. 16 and 5-0 going into Saturday’s game at No. 10 Alabama.
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