The current season for the Vanderbilt Commodores is like a dream start. At one stage, the 5-1 record was in danger due to Diego Pavia’s legal trouble with the NCAA. His participation in year six was in limbo until a preliminary injunction allowed the 24-year-old to play the 2025 season. In fact, the star QB already announced his decision for next year. But then comes the new NCAA’s proposed “five-for-five” eligibility rule, which, for some, comes at a worse time.

According to reports from Ross Dellenger and other college sports insiders, the NCAA’s proposed “five-for-five” eligibility rule has been tabled. If this rule is implemented, athletes would get five years to play five seasons with no redshirts, no medical waivers, and no extra COVID years. Just a clean five-and-five model that would apply uniformly to everyone. The rule was supposed to simplify the chaotic eligibility landscape, but now that the rule is delayed indefinitely, and likely not to take effect until at least the 2026-27 academic year. Current seniors are stuck in limbo, unable to change course even if they wanted to.​

Vanderbilt quarterback Diego Pavia is a perfect example of everything related to eligibility, and this new ruling is no exception. The 24-year-old signal-caller publicly announced back in September that 2025 would be his last season of college football. He put to rest any and every speculation that he’d try to milk a seventh year out of his unprecedented eligibility battle with the NCAA. “2025 is my last year,” the New Mexico native wrote on social media. Seemingly closing the door on his college career after this season wraps up. But here’s the catch.

Diego Pavia made that declaration before the NCAA decided to pump the brakes on the five-for-five rule. And now that the proposal is tabled, he’s boxed himself into a corner. His attorney had already indicated during a hearing in the U.S. Court of Appeals that they’d challenge the redshirt rule again. But Pavia’s public commitment to leaving after this season makes it exponentially harder to reverse course without looking like he’s gaming the system.​ His journey to this point is wild enough on its own.

The star QB’s career started at New Mexico Military Institute, a junior college. He then transferred to New Mexico State for two seasons and then landed at Vanderbilt in 2024. Under normal NCAA rules, his eligibility should have expired after last season because junior college years count against your Division I clock. But Pavia filed a lawsuit arguing that the NCAA’s policy violated antitrust law by preventing him from capitalizing on NIL opportunities.

U.S. District Judge William Campbell Jr. granted him a preliminary injunction in December 2024. The ruling was that Diego Pavia should be allowed to play in 2025, and the NCAA responded by issuing a blanket waiver allowing anyone who played at non-NCAA schools an extra year if they were about to exhaust their eligibility. That waiver opened the door for players like Tennessee quarterback Joey Aguilar to get sixth years, and it’s part of what sparked the NCAA’s consideration of the five-for-five model in the first place.

Administrators figured if they’re going to be sued into oblivion over eligibility rules, they might as well simplify everything and eliminate the gray areas.​ For Pavia specifically, the tabled ruling means he’s locked into his decision whether he likes it or not. He’s making at least $2 million this season through NIL deals as the face of Vanderbilt’s shocking resurgence. The Commodores went 7-6 last year with wins over Alabama and Auburn. And they’re currently ranked 17th in the country at 5-1 with victories over Virginia Tech and No. 11 South Carolina. 

As On3 pointed out, Pavia isn’t going to be a high-end NFL Draft pick. So staying in school would’ve been his best path to keep making serious money. That, too, only if the five-for-five rule had passed retroactively for 2025. Because the NCAA has delayed implementation until at least 2026-27, and because Pavia already went public, saying this is his last year. He can’t exactly walk that back without hurting whatever legal case his attorney might want to pursue.

The five-for-five dilemma

The five-for-five proposal would have been a game-changer for student-athletes in some ways, but a nightmare in others. On the positive side, it eliminates the stress of redshirt decisions. Coaches currently have just four exhibition games to figure out if a freshman should redshirt. And if they play that fifth game, boom, there goes a year of eligibility. The uniform approach would also level the playing field across programs.

It will end the constant waiver requests and eligibility appeals that have turned the NCAA’s compliance departments into full-time courtrooms. But the flip side is brutal for high school recruits.

If 23-year-old fifth-year seniors are taking up roster spots, what do you think will happen? You’re going to see more kids pushed to junior colleges, Division II schools, or lower-tier Division I programs just to get a shot at playing time. Michigan coach Dusty May even joked about where it all ends: “I just worry that then it’s going to be 6 for 6 and 7 for 7. What’s the right cutoff to not be on a college campus?”

Coaches like Iowa’s Ben McCollum and Purdue’s Matt Painter have expressed concerns that the rule eliminates the developmental redshirt model that’s helped players like Trey Kaufman-Renn. Trey sat out 2021-22 at Purdue and became an All-American candidate after getting time to develop. In Diego Pavia’s case, it also helped him earn more due to the NIL deal. Plus, providing the best ever start for the Commodores since the 2008 season.