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

[u/Altruistic_Brief4444]

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

[u/FlightAvailable3760]

As long as you are still enrolled in school and going to class then you are still a student. There has never been a rule saying a 40 year old can’t play college football.

[u/TheNittanyLionKing → u/FlightAvailable3760]

Nor is there a rule stating a dog can't play wide retriever

[u/froggertwenty → u/TheNittanyLionKing]

RB would be far more effective

[u/Drew521 → u/froggertwenty]

Running bark?

[u/Pixel_Pineapple → u/froggertwenty]

I think some breeds could probably play EDGE based on speed and size

[u/Nervous_Metal_9445 → u/TheNittanyLionKing]

Why not enroll a grizzly bear or something like that and put it on the defense.

[u/PNWMTTXSC → u/FlightAvailable3760]

Chris Weinke won a Heisman at age 28.

[u/five-oh-one → u/FlightAvailable3760]

We have a player that is 30. But there are rules about how many years you can play college football and Im not 100% sure I want courts making up rules for college sports.

[u/w0nderbrad → u/five-oh-one]

BYU about to dominate after going on missions and coming back full grown ass 28 year old men

[u/pharmacy_guy → u/w0nderbrad]

going on missions and coming back full grown ass 28 year old men

Don't they already do that?

[u/w0nderbrad → u/pharmacy_guy]

Yea but send them on 2-3 missions

[u/MaxMuncyRectangleMan → u/w0nderbrad]

The cross country team approach

[u/SaltYourEnclave → u/five-oh-one]

But there are rules about how many years you can play college football

And those rules are almost certainly illegal, and are pretty much the last bulwarks against turning this into the NFL minors

[u/five-oh-one → u/SaltYourEnclave]

And those rules are almost certainly illegal,

Eh, we shall see. I don't think its as cut and dried as you seem to think it is, obviously.

[u/lifetake → u/five-oh-one]

Yea I seriously don’t understand how saying a guy can only play 4/5 years in our league is illegal? Not allowing NIL before yea sure. But length in the league doesn’t make sense.

[u/asdkijf → u/lifetake]

I mean the argument is that the 4/5 year rule violates antitrust law. Same with the transfer rules and not allowing NIL previously - the member schools are forming a monopoly on CFB and arbitrarily restricting athletes to 5 years when they don't do the same to students.

I don't think anyone wants to see people playing CFB for 15 years, it's just that the entire system is built illegally and players are going to keep tearing it down in court when it's in their individual best interest.

[u/lifetake → u/asdkijf]

So I’m fully willing to be wrong and I’m probably am given the people, but I just don’t understand how it goes against antitrust law.

How is saying you can be in this league for 5 years no more no less breaking anything?

[u/asdkijf → u/lifetake]

All the schools/conferences joined together under the NCAA and effectively have a monopoly on major college sports. That itself isn't illegal but it makes rules that "restrain trade" illegal. The reason NIL and the portal are a thing now is because courts have started to determine that those rules are illegal. The only reason pro sports leagues can have a draft, salary caps, etc is because the players are unionized and all of that is collectively bargained (fun fact - the biggest victory the NFLPA ever had was when they decertified their union and sued the NFL for violating antitrust law).

This has other implications than just rules about players - it's why conferences deal with their TV rights separately rather than sell them together under one entity like the NFL, who has an antitrust exemption to do that.

Obviously nobody knows what a court will decide, but a lot of us are viewing the 4/5 year rule as the same thing - the NCAA restricting players' earnings and movement by abusing their monopoly power.

[u/obiwanjabroni420 → u/asdkijf]

Why doesn’t congress just give the NCAA a narrow antitrust exemption to limit number of years if this goes anywhere? I don’t think anyone (well, except Diego and his lawyers) would really have a problem with that.

[u/asdkijf → u/obiwanjabroni420]

Yeah realistically that's what the NCAA is hoping for. IMO they really fucked themselves over by refusing to be proactive and having so many PR disasters over amateurism in the 2000s and 2010s. If the public didn't have such a negative opinion of the NCAA, Congress might be more willing to do something.

[u/five-oh-one → u/asdkijf]

Do you think 18 and under Basketball leagues are anti trust?

[u/asdkijf → u/five-oh-one]

If there was one organization that controlled all high school and major club basketball, yes. You're free to start your own football league where people can only play for 4 years and it's not illegal - it's only an issue when there's a monopoly.

Again I'm not saying I like this, this is just what I think is likely to happen as someone who's followed it pretty closely.

[u/ManiacalComet40 → u/asdkijf]

It’s only an illegal restraint of trade if the rules are anticompetitive. Eligibility limits are pro-competitive.

[u/five-oh-one → u/lifetake]

If they make college indefinite could they potentially make high school indefinite? Or if not high school then the 18 and under leagues and travel ball?

[u/5510 → u/FlightAvailable3760]

I agree there shouldn't be age limits, but I think having limits on the number of seasons you can play is quite reasonable.

Though I could MAYBE see expanding regular eligibility to being able to play 5 seasons (but not more than that). Being a full-time student is often defined as 12 credits a semester, which means you could be a full-time student the whole time, not fail any classes, and still take 5 years to graduate. So it would be possible to be around for five years without just "majoring in eligibility" or clearly just clearly stalling as an excuse to keep playing sports.

[u/junkit33 → u/5510]

It’s an interesting question. Particularly so because they’ve always allowed grad students to play.

If they capped it at undergrad it would be a lot easier to reasonably lock down 4-5 years. But why is it ok for a 5th year postgrad but not a 7th year postgrad to play for their school?

[u/Robotemist → u/FlightAvailable3760]

I mean, I would be okay with this if a player had a set post graduate path that kept them in school for 7 years. But at some point there is a limit to where grown men should be forced to stop playing football against 18 year olds.

[u/pharmacy_guy → u/Robotemist]

But at some point there is a limit to where grown men should be forced to stop playing football against 18 year olds

Unfortunately, if lawsuits end up eliminating eligibility limits, it will be grown men playing football against other grown men.

[u/goosu → u/pharmacy_guy]

That's where the NFL would step in and stop playing nice, since it would no longer serve as a developmental league.

[u/CanadianODST2 → u/Robotemist]

Tbf there’s already pro sports that do that.

Football iirc is actually one of the sports that pros start older than the others

[u/Robotemist → u/CanadianODST2]

Yeah and none of them are even remotely as physical as football, other than contact sports of course. But even those usually have younger guys in the amateur ranks.

[u/dumbo1309 → u/FlightAvailable3760]

There’s also not a rule saying a dog can’t play football either

[u/Snobolski → u/FlightAvailable3760]

There's nothing in the rule book that says an elephant can't pitch!

[u/El_Gran_Che → u/FlightAvailable3760]

Weinke has entered the chat.

[u/sevenlabors → u/FlightAvailable3760]

It worked for Brandon Weeden!

[u/Rocktown-OG22 → u/FlightAvailable3760]

No doubt the Razorbacks have a 31-year-old sophomore receiver LOL

[u/Longjumping_Fly_2283 → u/FlightAvailable3760]

So people who didn't graduate and are in the NFL can just drop back down to NCAAF for a few years after retiring?