NASHVILLE, Tenn. — Diego Pavia reacted to a federal judge granting his preliminary injunction Wednesday allowing the quarterback to play the 2025 season the same way he celebrated upsetting then-No. 1 Alabama in October.
''VANDY WE (expletive) TURNT,'' Pavia wrote on social media with a 100 emoji.
U.S. District Judge William L. Campbell also told the NCAA that the organization cannot take any action against Vanderbilt or any other university that Pavia plays a fifth season for next year in his order issuing the injunction Wednesday. Campbell had asked attorneys at a hearing Dec. 4 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.''
Campbell noted current NCAA bylaws had made Pavia ineligible to play Division I football in 2025 simply because the quarterback started his career at a junior college.
The judge wrote he was not persuaded by the NCAA arguments on Division I eligibility limiting athletes who start at junior colleges to three or four years. He noted the NCAA does not start the eligibility clock for prep school athletes even when they compete athletically against junior colleges or other schools that count as ''collegiate institutions.''
''Given the different treatment of other student-athletes with comparable or more post-secondary experience, the NCAA's assertion that the eligibility rules are necessary to prevent age and experience disparities and preserve the quality of experience for student-athletes falls flat,'' Campbell wrote in his ruling.
Campbell also wrote how the NCAA's eligibility rules have evolved from when freshmen weren't allowed to play to adding a redshirt rule. The judge also wrote that Pavia has a "strong likelihood of success'' under the Sherman Act at trial because the organization's rules limiting junior college eligibility are ''restraints on trade with substantial anticompetitive effects.''
