Diego Pavia v. National Collegiate Athletic Association

Nashville, Tennessee, antitrust lawyers represented the parties in a sports law dispute over the impact of eligibilty rules.



ter a breakout year in 2024, Diego Pavia wanted to continue playing quarterback for Vanderbilt University during the 2025 football season. But National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) eligibility rules barred him from playing. So he sued the NCAA. After he won a preliminary injunction, the NCAA appealed. But in the meantime, the NCAA gave Pavia exactly what he wanted—a waiver that guaranteed he could play for Vanderbilt in 2025.

Preliminary injunction in favor of the Plaintiff.



After the grant of the preliminary injunction, the NCAA issued a waiver allowing all

players in Pavia’s position to play one more season in 2025. Any player who had enrolled

full-time and used a season of competition at a non-NCAA school could play in the 2025 season,

as long as he had used his fourth and final season of competition in 2024 and was otherwise

eligible. The NCAA later confirmed that the waiver covered Pavia. And it represented that the

waiver would remain in effect for the 2025 season no matter the outcome of the preliminary-

injunction appeal. Pavia shares that understanding of the waiver’s scope and effect.