When Tennessee quarterback Joey Aguilar challenged the NCAA's slipping grasp over rules enforcement amid constant lawsuit losses, he took on the governing body at a rare strong point. The NCAA has been able to consistently enforce its five-year eligibility window on student-athletes in other sports, and while it is currently fighting legal challenges has been successful in limiting further participation.
NCAA bylaw 12.8.1 establishes the five-year clock, which allows additional years for medical redshirts and other activities, such as religious trips or military obligations. Within that window, a student can fully participate in four years of Division I athletics. This is the rule former Tennessee point guard Zakai Zeigler challenged in his lawsuit, but he has made no headway in doing so.
Vanderbilt quarterback Diego Pavia was successful in getting a preliminary injunction, but his lawsuit has no made any headway in the year since. The case is moving so slowly that Aguilar chose to separate himself from the overall case, moving his challenge to Knox County as a result. With the move, Aguilar will be hoping for a favorable judge similar to Charles Bediako, who got a temporary restraining order from Alabama donor James Roberts in Tuscaloosa Circuit Court.
Former professional players gaining eligibility from lawsuits have gained traction, but the NCAA has won — or at least postponed — challenges to the five-year framework. For example, Bediako is playing for Alabama in his fifth year since starting Division I play as a freshman at Alabama and could not play after this season, even though he has only played for three seasons.
Pavia's lawsuit paints a bleak picture for Aguilar's court challenge, especially considering his request for a ruling or TRO to come before the Vols begin spring practice. The NCAA will make his case harder by attempting to remove it to federal court, forcing him out of the Knox County legal system and to a federal judge who will be less likely to have bias similar to Roberts.
Without the five-year framework, the NCAA's grasp on who can and cannot participate in college sports will continue to weaken. If there are no rules around who can play, college athletes such as Aguilar could play college sports indefinitely. The Tennessee quarterback only wants his junior college yeas back, but others, such as Ziegler or Ole Miss quarterback Trinidad Chambliss, are challenging the rules for other reasons.
The NCAA has been losing legal cases left and right surrounding who can play and has made big changes to international eligibility and allowing draft picks from the NBA and WNBA back to college sports. Allowing players who made salaries in the Canadian Hockey League into the NCAA men's hockey system has also been significant. But the one place where the NCAA has been consistent is limiting athletes to four years of competition over a five-year period.
The five-year clock is the last hope for the NCAA to gain some control before it becomes organizationally irrelevant, ushering in a new era of college sports rules enforcement.