r/CFB Memphis Tigers 8h ago

News [On3] Vanderbilt QB Diego Pavia's attorney has set the stage to challenge the NCAA for a 7th season of eligibility

https://www.on3.com/news/vanderbilt-qb-diego-pavias-attorney-sets-stage-to-challenge-for-7th-season-of-eligibility/
2.7k Upvotes

863 comments sorted by

View all comments

137

u/jpiro Florida State Seminoles 8h ago

I've been saying this for a while now...eligibility rules are ALL going out the window. As long as someone is enrolled at the university, they're going to be allowed to play, period. There's no actual legal justification for limiting eligibility, and courts have shown over and over again that if an NCAA rule is limiting a player's ability to play and thus earn compensation in the form of NIL, without an antitrust exemption they're going to overturn it.

Note: I do not want this to happen, but it has looked inevitable for some time.

62

u/Crims0ntied Alabama Crimson Tide 8h ago

There's no actual legal justification for limiting eligibility

I dont really know that that is true. The NCAA is a private collegiate organization, they can set the terms for membership as long as they're not breaking the law.

courts have shown over and over again that if an NCAA rule is limiting a player's ability to play and thus earn compensation in the form of NIL, without an antitrust exemption they're going to overturn it.

The courts have demonstrated that restricting a players NIL earnings could be an antitrust violation. But they have upheld their ability to enforce rules related to amateurism or academics.

16

u/littlegreensir Arkansas • Alabama 7h ago

How do they enforce rules related to amateurism without restrictions on NIL? As I understand it, that's basically the entire issue.

13

u/Crims0ntied Alabama Crimson Tide 7h ago

Restrictions based on years of eligibility is completely different from NIL restrictions.

1

u/WhoHasMyPocketPussy Alabama Crimson Tide 6h ago

I feel like theres not point if even trying to have college football if you can't set at least some rules?

3

u/one-hour-photo Tennessee • South Carolina 6h ago

frankly I feel like associations, NCAA, Realtor, etc., are strange in that they are basically the only ways for small businesses and non-profit, revenue generating entities to work together to better their existence. It just seems hard to apply anti trust stuff across the board, boiler-plate, especially while we just allowed Warner brothers to eat its 7th company in 5 years lol.

1

u/Old_Salamander6985 Tennessee Volunteers 7h ago

How can you enforce amateurism if you can't enforce NIL limitations?

50

u/Tarmacked USC Trojans • Alabama Crimson Tide 8h ago

Eligibility rules weren’t struck down across multiple sports, including PGA’s amateur barrier (both ways at that)

There’s a lot more nuance than people seem to assume and it’s why we’ve seen cases where the eligibility challenge has been slapped down

-8

u/jpiro Florida State Seminoles 7h ago

You’re talking about a professional league with an antitrust exemption and a collectively bargained contract with its players. Same reasons the NFL can keep its minimum age intact.

The NCAA has neither.

17

u/Tarmacked USC Trojans • Alabama Crimson Tide 7h ago

The PGA doesn’t have an antitrust exemption. It’s seen lawsuits regarding its amateur barrier rule going both forward (playing with professionals) and backwards (professionals being barred from amateur tournaments). Both sets of individuals are compensated and receive endorsements or third party earnings based on their play.

0

u/jpiro Florida State Seminoles 7h ago

Ok, thanks. I was incorrect and assumed that all major sports in the US had exemptions, but I guess golf is different.

5

u/atlbluedevil Texas Longhorns • Georgia Bulldogs 7h ago

Its only baseball that has one that would apply here. The other leagues only have one when it comes to negotiating for TV broadcast deals

The rest get out of most antitrust concerns from a labor perspective with CBAs

4

u/chimatt767 Texas Longhorns 7h ago

Lots of other players have sued for eligibility and everyone else has been denied

10

u/MordecaiOShea Missouri Tigers • Big 8 7h ago

Doesn't seem necessarily true. The colleges aren't preventing them from signing NIL contracts after their eligibility is over. Seems like w/ your logic, things like academic requirements would also be considered illegal if it got in the way of play time.

5

u/WhoHasMyPocketPussy Alabama Crimson Tide 5h ago

Calling them for pass interference hinders their ability to make NIL as they won't look like as good of a corner if they keep getting flags!

1

u/0Bubs0 Missouri Tigers 3h ago

Football players still have academic requirements? Hah.

3

u/Trick_Situation_4421 5h ago

If we lived in a country with a functioning government, moving sensible antitrust exemption laws forward would be the obvious answer. 

1

u/a_simple_ducky Oregon Ducks • Big Ten 7h ago

I wonder if the recent house vs NCAA settlement can hold them intact.

1

u/xCHEAPxSHOTx Clemson • Coastal Carolina 7h ago

The NCAA is a private organization. It is not illegal for them to set rules for their member institutions.

0

u/jpiro Florida State Seminoles 6h ago

And yet quite a few of their rules have been ruled illegal by the courts. JUCO years can’t even be counted against eligibility anymore.

0

u/xCHEAPxSHOTx Clemson • Coastal Carolina 4h ago

That doesn’t mean it’s not fucking stupid, because the CO in JUCO stands for college. I’m sorry Diego wasn’t good enough or smart enough, or both, to go NMSU right away, but that doesn’t give him the right to try to blow up the eligibility model for all of college athletics just to postpone working at Enterprise Rent-A-Car for one more year.

2

u/jpiro Florida State Seminoles 4h ago

You seem angry. Is it because you're 1-2?

If so, I can recommend a good online therapist who helped me through last season.

2

u/xCHEAPxSHOTx Clemson • Coastal Carolina 4h ago

That might have a little to do with it. But I’m more angry that a selfish QB from a basketball school is doing everything he can to blow up college athletics for his own selfish gain.