Zakai Zeigler filed a lawsuit against the NCAA regarding his eligibility back in May, pushing to play in 2025-26 after alleging that the rule permitting just four seasons of competition in a five-year window is “in an unlawful restraint of trade under federal and state antitrust laws.” In the same lawsuit, he alleges his NIL valuation for the upcoming season would fall between $2 million and $4 million based on his value as an “upperclassman with a proven performance record and high visibility, especially in a high-profile conference like the SEC.”

The NCAA’s response? Get a job — one that doesn’t include playing basketball for the Tennessee Volunteers (or anywhere in the collegiate ranks, for that matter). They denied Zeigler’s motion on Monday, making it clear the lawsuit only hurts future student-athletes, particularly incoming freshmen in need of those roster spots the post-graduate players out of eligibility are trying to take.

Though Zeigler says a fifth year of eligibility would allow him to cash out on one final lucrative NIL deal in college while developing as a potential pro, the NCAA said if the Tennessee star “had a viable path to the NBA, given his resume, he would already be a viable prospect. After all, NBA scouts would have seen him play in 138 collegiate contests. … There is no evidence that one more season of participation in college basketball is necessary (for Zeigler to play professionally)” considering he’s already met the age and experience requirements to enter the draft, but passed multiple times in favor of a degree.

“While Plaintiff focuses only on what that means for himself, he does so to the detriment of the entering student-athletes who dream of being the next Zakai Zeigler,” the NCAA said. “… College athletics is a means to a better end for student-athletes — not the end itself.”

Ouch.

It’s not just the NCAA defending itself in the lawsuit, either, which will be heard by a U.S. District Judge on Friday. The U.S. Department of Justice has also decided to voice its opinion on Zeigler’s lawsuit — a first in eligibility cases. Though it didn’t explicitly take a side, the DOJ did ask the court to apply a “flexible rule-of-reason approach” when hearing the case while considering the NCAA v. Alston ruling in 2021 regarding the violation of antitrust laws.

In short, the court can decide how it chooses to decide, but the eligibility rules help maintain fairness and academic standards and following those rules can prevent schools from gaining unfair athletic advantages. It’s a rule that preserves academic integrity and distinguishes them from professional sports.

“Eligibility rules — like the scholarship rules upheld in the Alston litigation — not only can enhance consumer demand—potentially leading to greater compensation—but also can enhance quality in the labor market by preserving ‘the distinction between college sports and professional sports,’” the DOJ wrote. “… We ask this Court to take into account the legal principles laid out above in applying the rule of reason. Whether and to what extent specific anticompetitive effects and procompetitive benefits arise from the Four Seasons Rule in the student-athlete labor market are factual questions to be answered based on the record at the upcoming hearing, and the United States takes no position on those facts.

“We urge the court, however, to consider how the rule may benefit competition in the relevant labor market, including by potentially enhancing the quality of the student-athlete experience.”

In other words, you are not special, Zakai Zeigler. You played in 138 games across four seasons, averaging 29.3 minutes per contest en route to all-time status at Tennessee. Owning the school record for assists (747) and steals (251) while sitting in fifth among games and minutes played, No. 18 in scoring at 1,556 career points, it’s time to move on.

Get a job. It’s time. The NCAA already thought so, and now, the U.S. Department of Justice agrees.

By Dr. Benjamin F. Chavis, Jr.
President and CEO, National Newspaper Publishers Association

President Donald Trump’s housing policy is shaping up to be both an economic and humanitarian disaster, and if leaders across the political spectrum don’t act soon, the damage may be irreversible.

To be clear, housing policy was already broken long before Trump returned to office. But instead of tackling the root causes — like the chronic shortage of Section 8 vouchers and affordable units — some policymakers chose to blame tools like rent-pricing software, which simply reflect the market’s conditions.

Rather than confront the real barriers to affordability, politicians have chosen to target the messenger. That never made sense, and it still doesn’t — a point that Democratic Governor Jared Polis made clear last week by vetoing a bill to ban such technology. If we want lower rents, we don’t need to ban software that reports current prices. We need to build enough housing so the data reflects abundance, not scarcity.

Unfortunately, President Trump has not gotten this memo, and he is making our broken housing system worse. He has already driven up lumber prices with protectionist trade wars and targeted immigrant communities who make up a vital part of the construction workforce. Now, the president is laying the groundwork for another housing crisis that could rival 2008.

In late May, Trump announced he is “giving very serious consideration” to taking Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac public again. These government-backed mortgage giants were central players in the last financial collapse. Under pressure to expand homeownership without oversight, they helped inflate the subprime mortgage bubble. Ten million Americans lost their homes. The institutions got bailed out. Families didn’t.

To prevent that kind of disaster from recurring, the government placed both firms under conservatorship. Releasing them now would create the same reckless incentives that crashed the global economy, and it would benefit deep-pocketed investors just in time for the 2026 elections. When the next economic crash comes, everyday Americans, and especially Americans in underserved communities, will be the ones paying the price.

And it doesn’t stop there. Trump’s proposed budget would cut federal rental assistance by about 40% at a time when nearly half of renters are spending more than a third of their income on housing. “We would see, I think, homelessness escalate in a way that has been really unprecedented,” warned Kim Johnson of the National Low Income Housing Coalition.

Remaining funds would be handed to states as “block grants,” echoing past efforts to gut safety net programs through decentralization and attrition. This is not a serious answer to the housing crisis. It’s an ideological move that risks deepening inequality and instability that will result in a type of “housing apartheid.”

Policymakers from both parties should reject this approach and unite around a new vision: one that builds.  Writers Ezra Klein and Derek Thompson call this the “abundance agenda.” In their book Abundance, they challenge local, state, and federal leaders to confront the self-imposed zoning restrictions and regulatory delays that have made it almost impossible to build enough housing.

“You cannot be the party of working families when the places you govern are places working families can no longer afford to live,” Klein wrote. That means reforming exclusionary zoning, streamlining permitting, and shifting the political culture that demonizes developers while ignoring demand. It means prioritizing supply, not just subsidies.

Because if we don’t solve the housing crisis ourselves, voters will turn to anyone who claims they will, even if the solutions are fake or destructive. The values are already there. What we need now is strategy and action. Increasing housing affordability and availability isn’t just good policy. It’s the only way to keep working Americans housed, the economy stable, and America’s future secure and inclusive.

The House v. NCAA settlement has the state of college sports in a standstill as schools try to prepare for a murky future of paying players directly for NIL.

With the college football season beginning just months after the expected July 1 date, it’s been a chaotic nightmare of an offseason.

There’s not even a guarantee the settlement will be approved.

The worst part is that the players at the center of the issue weren’t consulted and don’t know what the future holds.

In the absence of that voice, the need for collective bargaining and a players union grows more critical by the day.

Jim Cavale, founder of the players association for college athletes, Athletes.org, spoke exclusively with NIL Daily On SI about the need for a sustainable solution in the form of collective bargaining.

Can Collective Bargaining Save College Football in the NIL Era?

Name, image, and likeness entered college sports as the result of a pivotal lawsuit filed by former UCLA Bruins basketball player Ed O’Bannon.

College sports have since been shaped by litigation, and is that truly the path it should continue to follow? Cavale doesn’t believe so.

“The only sustainable solution for college athletics to have rules that can be enforced without litigation is collective bargaining,” Cavale explained.

Before launching Athletes.org with former NFL player Brandon Copeland, Cavale founded INFLCR in 2017, which helped support athletes on social media to build their brand.

They were acquired by Teamworks, and Cavale stayed on as CEO as they built payment and reporting software for clients once NIL began.

Cavale observed that within the more than $300 million in transactions, most of the funds originated from donors who funneled money through collectives, essentially creating a pay-for-play model.

As court cases continued to be filed against the NCAA, Cavale saw the problems in an unstructured environment operating under the guise of NIL when it was really pay-for-play and sought to found Athletes.org.

To date, there are a record 4,700 members in the players association, making it the largest in America. Their focus has been on Power Four football and basketball, of which there are 2,300.

That’s where Cavale anticipates collective bargaining taking center stage first, but the reason he expects that is because of foreseen issues with an incomplete solution in the House settlement.

“We need a set of rules that can be enforced without litigation. We need them in all realms: transfer portal, free agency, compensation, health and safety, et cetera. The only way to do that is through collective bargaining.”

Collective bargaining would also give athletes a voice in this process they really haven’t been included in, despite the plaintiffs representing less than 0.1% of all athletes, all of whom are members of the players association.

“Unfortunately, not only has the greater group of college athletes that are going to be impacted [by House] not been included in that negotiation, but no athletes have been educated on anything pertaining to the settlement,” Cavale said. “The schools have said, We’re going to tell our athletes how it’s all going to work once it gets approved. There are tens of thousands of college athletes that are trying to piece together what this new reality is going to look like through media reports, not direct education from their schools.”

Cavale also pointed out that the compensation provided by schools does not truly qualify as NIL deals. These agreements are a form of pay-for-play. However, the contracts will pertain to NIL publicity rights.

Athletes may sign deals that limit their ability to use their likeness for outside endorsement deals because they’re disguised from their true purposes: their performance on the field.

“Leave real NIL endorsement opportunities open to those athletes, should they have the value, to go command those deals,” Cavale said. “Instead of trying to disguise these deals in a way where you now own their rights to do endorsements or can block them from doing certain endorsements because those brands might conflict with the brand sponsors of your school. That’s going to be a mess. There’s a real crux with how these contracts are being structured that will create a flurry of lawsuits.”

That void in education has created an opportunity for Cavale and his team, as their app educates their members on the topics of roster limits, how money will be dispersed, and why football is commanding a higher amount of $20 million.

The athletes also benefit from pro bono partnerships with law firms, accounting firms, mental health, and more as part of the free membership. Ultimately, they just want to know what the settlement means.

Hall of Fame broadcaster Dick Vitale is already fired up for college basketball season, and he’s high on the defending national champions from Gainesville.

• Cayden Baker is a social media intern for Tennessee Mojo, making regular posts and announcements, and giving top players advice on recruiting and name, image and likeness financial deals.
• The former Powell High softball player also is a UT student, owns a business and works part time as a receptionist.

As if owning a business wasn’t enough … or working a second job … or having a time-consuming internship … or carrying a full class load at the University of Tennessee at Knoxville … Cayden Baker’s days — and nights — are full, even without the game of softball that she once loved so much.