A federal judge granted Diego Pavia‘s request for a preliminary injunction allowing the quarterback to play the 2025 season and told the NCAA the organization cannot take any action against Vanderbilt or any other university that Pavia plays a fifth season for next year.
U.S. District Judge William L. Campbell issued the injunction Wednesday after a hearing Dec. 4. Campbell had asked attorneys both how quickly they could be ready for trial and the transfer portal window, which closes Dec. 28.
“With Pavia as quarterback, Vanderbilt has seen historic success — Vanderbilt beat both the University of Alabama and Auburn University — and the team will be playing in a bowl game for the first time since 2018,” Campbell wrote in an opinion issued with the injunction. “Those familiar with college football appreciate this remarkable accomplishment. Pavia estimates that he could earn over $1 million in NIL compensation in the 2025-26 season.”
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Campbell noted current NCAA bylaws make Pavia ineligible to play Division I football in 2025 simply because the quarterback started his career at a junior college.
Pavia filed his lawsuit seeking an additional season Nov. 8 in the U.S. District Court for the Middle District of Tennessee in Nashville. He has applied to Vanderbilt’s masters’ program for legal studies starting in January in case he won the injunction.
He did not get an offer from a Football Bowl Subdivision school coming out of Volcano Vista High School in Albuquerque, New Mexico. He went to New Mexico Military Institute in 2020 and led the junior college to the 2021 national championship. He went to New Mexico State in 2022 and won 10 games in 2023.
The Conference USA Offensive Player of the Year then followed his head coach, Jerry Kill, and offensive coordinator Tim Beck to Vanderbilt this offseason.
Pavia is a big reason why Vanderbilt is 6-6. The Commodores play Georgia Tech on Dec. 27 in the Birmingham Bowl — the program’s first since 2018.
The Commodores wound up ranked twice in the AP Top 25 and that win over then-No. 1 Alabama snapped a 60-game winless skid over AP top-five teams.
Reporting by The Associated Press.
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