A college football quarterback is suing the NCAA because the association’s rules don’t allow him to become an eighth-grade senior quarterback.
Yes, you read that right: Joey Aguilar wants to play as an eighth-grade senior.
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He will celebrate his 25th birthday in June. In three months, he wants to start at quarterback for Tennessee. Because, hey, being a college quarterback and getting paid $2 million must sound a lot better than leaving college and getting a job in the real world.
However, Aguilar ran into trouble. The mean old NCAA doesn’t want him to pursue his dream of being an eight-year senior quarterback.
As such, Aguilar respects the modern rite of passage for college athletes. He hired a lawyer.
Now, a judge in knoxville tennesseewill be influential in determining the Vols’ starting quarterback for the 2026 season.
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Hayes: Lawless NCAA moves quickly while players judge store eligibility
When an athlete sues the NCAA because it doesn’t allow him to start his eighth college season, and when a local judge decides his alma mater’s quarterback competition, I think we’ve officially given up.
Folks, the NCAA has a growing problem, and it’s not zero.
NIL is a scapegoat. This is not a major problem in college sports. The biggest problem isn’t even the transfer portal.
Aguilar’s lawsuit once again demonstrates that the real threat to the NCAA is the association’s ongoing efforts to enforce its eligibility rules.
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NCAA’s inability to enforce eligibility rules top concern
The NCAA spent years kowtowing to Washington lawmakers in hopes of getting some self-serving NIL legislation. These lobbying efforts bore fruit. Federal lawmakers touted various versions of partisan NIL legislation, but it never left.
What a waste of time and money.
Rather than focusing on a NIL bailout that will never materialize, the NCAA would be wiser to lobby for narrow bipartisan legislation that would allow it to enforce its eligibility rules.
Meanwhile, the NCAA faces a series of eligibility lawsuits before local judges who side with the home teams.
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An Alabama judge listed as a donor to the Crimson Tide has issued a temporary ruling allowing professional basketball player Charles Bediako to wear a Crimson Tide jersey.
In a Mississippi court, University of Mississippi quarterback Trinidad Chambliss is suing the NCAA for a sixth year of eligibility, citing redshirt medical reasons.
In federal court, former Vanderbilt quarterback Diego Pavia sued the NCAA on similar grounds to the Aguilar case, seeking longer NCAA junior college transfer eligibility.
That’s not to say the NCAA lacks rules. It has hundreds of pages of rules to which its member universities agree. It just can’t enforce the rules effectively.
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Whenever a rule negatively affects a specific college or athlete, someone calls 1-800-LAWSUIT. Then, after the NCAA had its teeth knocked out numerous times, member institutions began bemoaning the lack of guardrails.
When someone in the College Sports Inc. ecosystem says they want guardrails, what they really mean is: We want guardrails until they stop us from doing what we want to do. We want guardrails that limit our competition, but they don’t apply to us.
Why Joey Aguilar wants to be an eighth-grade senior quarterback
In this case, NCAA rules prohibit an athlete like Aguilar from spending four years at a junior college and then playing senior ball. Under NCAA rules, an athlete has five years to play four full seasons, even if some of those seasons occur at a junior college institution.
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In response, Aguilar’s legal team said – and I’m paraphrasing here – that’s bullshit.
Aguilar argued in court documents that his junior college years should not affect his chances of playing four seasons in the NCAA.
To recap, Aguilar began his college football career in 2019, playing one year at City College of San Francisco.
He then spent three years at Diablo Valley College. He played two seasons there before one was canceled due to the coronavirus pandemic.
He then played two seasons at Appalachian State University.
He then spent a few months at UCLA last spring, but fell down the depth rankings after UCLA plundered Tennessee’s Nico Yamalewa.
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As a result, Aguilar transferred again last season and played at Tennessee, where he led the SEC in passing yards per game.
Now, he wants an eighth college season, but those pesky NCAA rules don’t allow it. According to Aguilar’s court complaint, the NCAA is “depriving (him) of millions of dollars” and he would have received zero compensation in 2026.
In other words, the NCAA rule, if enforced, would allow redshirt freshman George McIntyre to start at Tennessee instead of sitting behind the eighth-grader.
Depending on how Aguilar’s lawsuit goes, McIntyre may be able to exercise his rites of passage and bar. Counterclaim!
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Remember that old NCAA commercial? The narrator in the commercial says that most athletes go into careers outside of sports?
The modern version of that ad goes like this: NCAA athletes can make millions of dollars, compete permanently, and then retire from playing professionally in anything other than college sports if they hire the right lawyers and get a favorable judge.
Hey son, what do you want to be when you grow up?
Retired college quarterback.
Blake Topppmeyer is the senior national college football columnist for the USA TODAY Network. Email him at BTopppmeyer@gannett.com and follow him on @btopmeyer.
This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Tennessee quarterback Joey Aguilar sues NCAA over eighth college season. Seriously?
