• The aftershocks of O’Bannon and Alston are still being felt as college athletes have successfully challenged eligibility rules once considered non-commercial in nature.
• The presumption that eligibility rules are necessary to run a sporting league may no longer be accepted and such rules may require a procompetitive justification.
• Professional leagues should review rules traditionally viewed as “non-commercial” to better anticipate antitrust challenges to those rules amidst an evolving legal landscape.

Eligibility rules have long been the sovereign territory of professional sports leagues. However, recent decisions have called this tradition into question. In this article, we discuss three recent cases involving former Junior College athletes seeking to compete notwithstanding their ineligibility under NCAA (the “National Collegiate Athletic Association”) rules. As antitrust law continues to develop alongside collegiate sports’ rapid evolution in the NIL (“Name, Image, and Likeness”) era, professional and collegiate sports leagues should take note of these new decisions and the impact they might have on league governance rules more broadly. In two of those cases (Pavia and Elad) the courts subjected the NCAA’s eligibility restriction to a rule of reason analysis before granting the requested preliminary injunction enjoining application of the rule. In the third, the court declined to subject the eligibility rule to antitrust scrutiny, finding the rule to be non-commercial in nature and going on to say it would survive antitrust scrutiny even if the rule was commercial in nature.

Pavia v. NCAA and Elad v. NCAA: Successful Challenges to Eligibility Rules Impacting Former Junior College Athletes

Junior College athletes have been increasingly successful in obtaining preliminary injunctions that allow extra years of eligibility at a Division I school, calling into question the enforceability of the NCAA’s long-standing “Five-Year Rule.” The Five-Year Rule permits college athletes to compete in up to four competitive seasons within five years, inclusive of time spent at a Junior College. This “JUCO Rule” means that a recruit transferring to a Division I institution after graduating from a Junior College will have two fewer seasons of eligibility than a recruit enrolling directly at a four-year institution out of high school.

Diego Pavia, a quarterback who transferred to Vanderbilt after two seasons at New Mexico State University, obtained an injunction that will allow him to suit up for Vanderbilt this fall. Pavia sought the injunction because, prior to joining New Mexico State University, he led the New Mexico Military Institute to a Junior College National Championship victory in 2021. Application of the JUCO Rule would have resulted in his 2024 season at Vanderbilt having been his last. Pavia sued to enjoin that rule, and the Court found that the JUCO Rule’s restrictions on eligibility “necessarily have anticompetitive effects” in the NIL era. Judge William Campbell of the Middle District of Tennessee explained that “the NCAA’s assertion that restrictions on the length of eligibility have a net neutral affect ignores the new economic reality in the age of NIL compensation.” The Court further characterized NCAA Eligibility Rules as “restrictions on who can compete (and earn NIL compensation) and for how long.” The NCAA subsequently granted a waiver to permit similarly situated former JUCO players to play a fourth year of Division I sports in fall 2025 or spring 2026. This ruling left student-athletes who weren’t similarly situated to Pavia in an uncertain situation.

Enter Jett Elad. Elad transferred to Rutgers University from the University of Las Vegas after playing at Garden City Community College in Kansas. Although Elad had hoped that the NCAA might grant him the same waiver that benefitted Diego Pavia and other similarly situated athletes, the NCAA denied Elad’s application for such a waiver. Elad then filed for a preliminary injunction against the NCAA in April, arguing that counting his year of Junior College competition against his NCAA eligibility violates Section 1 of the Sherman Antitrust Act by unreasonably restraining trade in the labor market for college athletes.

Judge Zahid N. Quraishi of the District of New Jersey agreed, finding that Division I college football players are part of a “labor market” where compensation takes the form of lucrative NIL deals. Players, Quraishi explained, also use Division I football to prepare for the NFL. Recognizing that an injunction was “potentially Elad’s only opportunity to complete his Division I career and transition into the NFL,” the court found that “the JUCO Rule is commercial in nature” and that “the JUCO Rule limits who is eligible to play and therefore to negotiate a NIL agreement.”

Like the court in Pavia, Judge Quraishi’s decision reflected the new NIL reality. He noted that “Elad’s NIL agreement is a real-life example of a wider phenomenon [in which] older, more experienced players generally receive more NIL compensation than younger, less experienced players at the same position. Selectively limiting JUCO students from that pool necessarily has a commercial effect.” Judge Quraishi further stressed that Elad’s decision to enroll at Rutgers “was based in part on a NIL deal for $550,000 compensation, with an additional $100,000 incentive bonus if he is named to the All-Big Ten First Team.” 

The changes in NIL within the market for college football and the broader recognition that the NCAA is engaged in a commercial enterprise was critical for Pavia and Elad’s determination that the NCAA’s long-standing eligibility restrictions were commercial in nature and should be enjoined. As such, both cases show the judiciary’s increased willingness to review sports league eligibility rules under antitrust law.

Goldstein v. NCAA: Tempered Expectations for Wholesale Elimination of the Five-Year Rule

Not all student-athletes’ Antitrust challenges of NCAA eligibility rules have prevailed. In Goldstein v. NCAA, a student-athlete’s petition for injunctive relief to increase his eligibility was denied by Judge Tillman “Tripp” Self of the Middle District of Georgia. Judge Self ruled that the NCAA eligibility bylaws are “non-commercial” and, therefore, are not subject to antitrust law. Unlike Elad who was offered over half a million dollars in NIL funds, Goldstein “did not have a single dollar amount on . . . [his] current or potential NIL compensation.” In addition, while Pavia and Elad both concerned college football eligibility, Goldstein and other similar rulings in favor of the NCAA concerned college baseball players who were not economically similarly situated. While the determination that the eligibility rule is not commercial in nature is hard to square with the contrary opinions in Pavia and Elad, it appears that the outsized revenue and NIL funds in college football drove the differing outcomes.

Broader Implications on Professional Sports

For years, the NCAA largely prevailed against antitrust challenges. That changed in a dramatic way following plaintiffs’ victories in O’Bannon v. NCAA and then in Alston v. NCAA. But those cases addressed restrictions on athletes’ ability to receive compensation. Pavia and Elad signal that the antitrust scrutiny of NCAA rules is unlikely to end with Alston and that rules previously considered to be non-commercial and aimed at preserving parity in sports are also in plaintiffs’ sights.

These challenges to NCAA league rules should not be viewed as siloed and limited to college sports. In the past year there have been several high-profile antitrust challenges in the sports world targeting league rules, as we have previously discussed in our updates on NASCAR and US Soccer.

It may be that we are seeing a shift in how the courts view sports leagues, with judges less reticent than they have been in the past to interfere with a tradition viewed as deeply rooted in our nation’s collective consciousness, and therefore less willing to defer to league rules even where the leagues assert that they are best suited to decide the rules required for competition. As the case law continues to develop, professional sports leagues should anticipate the possibility that their traditional governance models may suddenly be subjected to antitrust scrutiny.

This publication is for general information purposes only. It is not intended to provide, nor is it to be used as, a substitute for legal advice. In some jurisdictions it may be considered attorney advertising.

The NBA Draft lottery is taking place on Monday night in Chicago, and many professional basketball hopefuls are gearing up for the upcoming draft.

However, not as many as in prior years.

Via an article on NBA.com, The Athletic reported that this year’s total number of NBA Draft early entrants was just 106 players.

“The early entry list is much less substantial than what we’ve seen in the past,” the article stated. “Mainly because of the proliferation of the name, image and likeness (NIL) marketplace in college basketball, there are only 106 early entrants to the NBA Draft, a drastically lower number than the 195 who entered last year and the 242 who entered the year before. This peaked in 2021, when 353 early entrants declared for the draft.”

Pitt saw just one player enter the NBA draft this offseason: Jaland Lowe. Zack Austin, Damian Dunn, and Ishmael Leggett are also pursuing professional basketball opportunities as well.

Lowe will compete in the G League Elite Camp as part of his draft process. However, earlier this offseason, he entered the transfer portal as well, and eventually committed to Kentucky for a reported $3 million NIL paycheck.

Kentucky Coach Explains How Jaland Lowe Will be Used at UK

The NBA states that players from this camp may receive invitations to the NBA Combine, the more prestigious of the two events, based on their performance at the G League Elite Camp.

“A select number of players from the draft-eligible group will be invited to participate in the 2025 NBA Draft Combine later in the week based on their performance in the NBA G League Elite Camp,” said the press release by the NBA.

NBA players appearing in past NBA G League Elite Camp include Indiana Pacers guard Andrew Nembhard, New Orleans Pelicans guard Jose Alvarado, Dallas Mavericks forward Caleb Martin, Atlanta Hawks guard Terance Mann, Cleveland Cavaliers guard Max Strus, Memphis Grizzlies forward Vince Williams Jr., and three-time AT&T Slam Dunk champion and 2023-24 Kia NBA G League MVP Mac McClung.

BOCA RATON, Fla. – Ticket information is now available for the 2025 NCAA Gainesville Softball Regional, which has Florida Atlantic as the No. 2-seed. Tickets can be purchased through the University of Florida’s Ticketmaster website and go on sale Tuesday at 10 a.m.

Both all-session passes and single-session tickets will be available. For information on tickets, visit HERE.

The back-to-back American Athletic Conference regular-season champion Owls are back in the Gainesville Regional for a second straight season. FAU battles No. 3-seed Georgia Tech on Friday at 2 p.m. The other half of the double-elimination bracket includes No. 1-seed (and No. 3 national seed) Florida and No. 4-seed Mercer.

FAU fans have been a factor all season long, resulting in record-setting attendance marks at FAU Softball Stadium. Owl Nation is encouraged to make the trip to Gainesville and paint Katie Seashole Pressly Softball Stadium in red as another postseason run begins this weekend.

For information on tickets, visit HERE.
 

For the Owls’ complete schedule, click HERE. To follow the team socially, visit @fausoftball, or for the most up-to-date information, go to www.fausports.com.
 
The Owls’ 2025 postseason is powered by Demand the Limits Injury Attorneys.
 

Five-star offensive tackle Jackson Cantwell will commit on Tuesday after entertaining offers from some of the top programs in college football.

Cantwell (6-foot-7.5, 300 pounds) is rated as the No. 1 player in the 2026 class by both On3 and Rivals. He holds 31 scholarship offers entering his senior year.

Advertisement

The Nixa (Missouri) High School product is down to four schools in Miami, Ohio State, Georgia and Oregon. Cantwell has taken visits to each of his top contenders this year and has hosted multiple in-home visits.

After moving up his commitment date from April 30 to May 13, Cantwell took an unofficial visit to Georgia, which also hosted No. 1 quarterback Jared Curtis after he pledge to the Bulldogs last week.

Cantwell’s trip to Athens to meet with head coach Kirby Smart and Co. reportedly went well, according to On3’s Steve Wiltfong, who previously predicted Cantwell to land at Georgia.

And the momentum appears to be steadily building for the Bulldogs.

“The buzz continues to favor Georgia who had Cantwell back on campus this weekend,” Wiltfong wrote on Monday. “Kirby Smart’s track record, the relationship with offensive line coach Stacy Searels, the program’s pedigree, player development, opportunities from an NIL standpoint have put the Bulldogs in pole position.”

Advertisement

Wiltfong’s prediction for Cantwell is consistent with additional forecasts by both 247Sports and Rivals.

Cantwell teased the idea of pledging to UGA when posting a photo with Curtis during his visit.

HOUSTON, Texas – Two significant bills are making their way through the Texas legislature, aiming to give high school athletes the ability to profit from their name, image, and likeness (NIL).

This change mirrors recent developments at the college level, where athletes have started to benefit financially from their personal brands.

House Bill 2211 will allow high school athletes participating in University Interscholastic League (UIL) activities to earn compensation for their name, image, and likeness.

This bill applies to both public and private primary and secondary schools involved in UIL activities. Eligible students can earn money from their name, image, or likeness when they are not engaged in official league activities. They can also hire professional representation, such as an attorney, to help with contracts related to their NIL rights.

To qualify, students must be at least 18 years old, meet specific grade requirements, and follow UIL rules. The UIL and schools cannot create policies that prevent students from earning compensation.

However, there are restrictions on the types of endorsements allowed. For instance, students cannot endorse alcohol, tobacco, or gambling products.

The UIL is required to implement rules that ensure students receive education on financial literacy and life skills, preparing them for managing their money.

House Bill 3224 is similar but has a slightly different focus regarding eligibility.

Like HB 2211, this bill applies to public and private secondary schools participating in UIL activities. It grants students the same rights to earn compensation for their name, image, and likeness when not engaged in official league activities, along with the ability to seek professional representation.

This bill, though, expands eligibility to students in the ninth grade and above, making it accessible to younger athletes.

Similar to HB 2211, it prohibits endorsements for certain products and ensures that compensation cannot be used to influence student transfers or enrollments.

This bill also mandates financial literacy and life skills education for participating students.

Both bills will give high school athletes in Texas the chance to monetize their personal brands while ensuring they are educated on managing their finances.

As these bills move through the Texas legislature, they could change the landscape of high school sports in Texas, allowing young athletes to benefit from their hard work and dedication.

The Ohio State Buckeyes climbed to the top of the college football mountaintop last season, winning the national title.

While quarterback Will Howard and defensive end Jack Sawyer seemingly piloted their respective units on both sides of the field, the biggest star was a 19-year-old freshman.

Advertisement

Jeremiah Smith, who originally committed to Ohio State as the top-ranked recruit out of the class of 2025, made an immediate impact on the Buckeyes, establishing himself as one of the best wide receivers in college football.

After the season, as Smith prepares for his second year at Ohio State, he shared a new NIL deal with fans on social media.

Smith posted a photo of himself in front of a black Mercedes, announcing that he is joining the Mark Wahlberg Auto Group.

“Glad to be joining the Mark Wahlberg Auto Group,” Smith said.

View the original article to see embedded media.

Jeremiah Smith already boasts one of the most impressive NIL portfolios in the country. According to On3, Smith has a $4 million NIL valuation, the highest of any wide receiver in college football.

Advertisement

Before signing with the Mark Wahlberg Auto Group, dedicated to one of the most well-known American actors in the present day, Smith inked deals with various prestigious companies.

The Ohio State star’s portfolio consists of The Foundation, The 1870 Society, Ricart Automotive, Battle Sports, Lululemon, Nintendo and Red Bull.

During his freshman season with the Ohio State Buckeyes, Jeremiah Smith posted 15 touchdowns and 1,315 yards on 76 receptions.

Related: Average GPA of Texas Players Under Steve Sarkisian Turns Heads

Related: Average GPA of Ohio State Players Under Ryan Day Turns Heads