NCAA grants waiver to ex-JUCO players while appealing Pavia ruling - ESPN

The NCAA Division I Board of Directors on Monday approved a blanket waiver granting an additional year of eligibility to former junior college transfers in similar positions to Vanderbilt quarterback Diego Pavia, opening the door for a wave of college athletes across all sports to spend one more year in college athletics.

According to an NCAA memo, the waiver extends an extra year of eligibility in 2025-26 to athletes who previously «competed at a non-NCAA school for one or more years» and otherwise would have exhausted their NCAA eligibility following the 2024-25 season.

The decision from the NCAA comes five days after a federal judge in Tennessee granted an injunction to allow Pavia, a former junior college transfer who played his first season at Vanderbilt in 2024, to pursue an additional year of college eligibility next fall.

In its memo announcing the waiver, the NCAA also announced that it has filed a notice of appeal to the ruling in Pavia's case.

Pavia sued the NCAA in November over its eligibility standards, arguing that the organization's rule of counting a player's junior college years against his overall NCAA eligibility violates antitrust laws by restricting an athlete's ability to profit from their name, image, and likeness.

Last week's injunction applied solely to Pavia and would have prevented the NCAA from barring the Vanderbilt quarterback from returning next fall. However, Monday's ruling from the NCAA will now allow other athletes in similar situations — former junior college players who would have been out of eligibility following this season — to return for an additional year in 2025-26.

The waiver does not extend to all junior college athletes, only those who would have completed their NCAA