Vanderbilt quarterback Diego Pavia’s recent lawsuit against the NCAA already has massive ramifications for former junior college basketball stars playing at the Division 1 level. Pavia argued his time as a JUCO athlete should not count toward his four years of eligibility, and after a federal judge in Tennessee granted an injunction to allow Pavia to pursue an additional year of eligibility, the NCAA approved a blanket waiver which grants an additional year of eligibility to former junior college transfers in similar positions.
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, according to a memo.
This decision has significant ramifications across all sports, although for now it only impacts student-athletes who would have completed their NCAA eligibility this year.
College basketball doesn’t typically have as many junior college transfers as other sports – particularly baseball – but there are plenty of high level players across the country currently who just found out they have an extra year of eligibility, and the decisions facing those athletes will be felt by quite a few programs in the coming months.
Below is a look at five high level college hoopers – three who are directly impacted by this decision and two who could be in the future – and what it could mean for themselves and their team going forward: