Former JUCO players are backing a legal move that could shift college football

A group of 26 players are seeking an extension of the Diego Pavia ruling in their favor for another year.

Vanderbilt QB Diego Pavia is the legal trailblazer for a group of 26 JUCO players seeking an extension of his legal case to allow them more NCAA eligibility | NICOLE HESTER / THE TENNESSEAN / USA TODAY NETWORK via Imagn Images

Diego Pavia has always been a trailblazer. The man who made Vanderbilt football relevant and finished second in the Heisman Trophy vote could have an even bigger impact. A group of 26 former JUCO football players have piggy-backed onto Pavia's legal victory, seeking a ruling that their JUCO season or seasons won't count against their allotted four years of NCAA playing time.

Pavia trailblazed this particular area after suing the NCAA in the Middle District of Tennessee last year. Pavia played two season at New Mexico Military Institute, a junior college, in 2020 and 2021. Pavia then played two seasons at New Mexico State in 2022 and 2023. He came to Vanderbilt with ostensibly a single year of eligibility left, based on the NCAA ruling that the 2020 COVID season would not count against athletes.

But after playing out 2024, he sued the NCAA and obtained a ruling that he had another season of eligibility, as the JUCO season would not count against his eligibility. Accordingly, Pavia played the 2025 season... and also became a trailblazer for another group of JUCO players.

A group of 26 former JUCO players who have subsequently transferred to Division I schools have been added to Pavia's suit. These players essentially claims that for purposes of legal relief, they are situated the same as Pavia was. While the NCAA allowed a waiver of JUCO years off the Pavia case, they allowed it only to apply to the 2025-26 season and not further. Accordingly, these players are seeking a ruling that it will also apply to 2026-27 and potentially beyond.

In an extension of the Diego Pavia eligibility case, 26 former JUCO players are requesting an additional playing season, asking the court in a filing today to extend the injunction granted to Pavia last year. The players want a January hearing before the transfer portal closes. pic.twitter.com/cbb9sB2EQU

— Ross Dellenger (@RossDellenger) December 27, 2025

Not only do the players want their requested relief, but they want it in a hurry. The group asked for a January hearing to be held before the transfer portal closes, so that the players can enjoy the full financial benefit of an extra season.

The latest filing in the lawsuit opened with a parody of "Twas the Night Before Christmas" the concluded with the football players noting that the NCAA has recently granted four years of eligibility to a 21-year old European basketball players with four years of professional experience who was drafted by an NBA team two years ago (Baylor's James Nnaji). The suit noted that Nnaji will be 25 years old before he runs out of eligibility, but that the NCAA "argues that high school seniors are harmed if a 22-or 23-year old former junior college players plays one more year of college football."