Tennessee transfer Alberto Osuna penned an open letter to the NCAA on Monday afternoon. In the letter, Osuna asked the collegiate sports governing body to award him his final year of eligibility while ripping them for how they have handled his case.
“This is your opportunity to prioritize the well-being of student-athletes,” Osuna wrote. “Grant me my immediate eligibility because it is the right thing to do. Because doing so would align with the principles student-athlete welfare that you say your organization prioritizes more than anything else.”
In his statement, the Mauldin, South Carolina native highlighted the importance in being able to support his family financially after his dad underwent a surgery that is limiting his ability to work. Osuna states that the NIL opportunities he could receive at Tennessee are not comparable to what they would have been at the University of Tampa, where he was this fall.
“But I also came here for the NIL potential that didn’t exist at Tampa and to be able to help my family and I financially,” Osuna wrote. “To help my father who underwent back surgery and hasn’t been able to get back to 100% since then.”
Osuna is seeking an extra-year of eligibility on the same grounds that the NCAA awarded Vanderbilt’s Diego Pavia an additional year of eligibility. Pavia won a lawsuit against the NCAA with a federal judge ruling that an athlete’s years playing at a junior college can not count against his Division-I eligibility.
At the time the ruling in the Pavia case came down, Osuna was preparing to play the season University of Tampa because he was out of Division I eligibility. But since Osuna played two seasons at Walters State Community College, the precedent in the Pavia ruling opened the possibility of playing another season at the Division I level.
Osuna reached out to the NCAA asking whether the Pavia ruling would give him an extra year of eligibility. The NCAA told Osuna that he would have to file a waiver to inquire about that. Only Division I schools, not individuals nor Division II schools, can file those waiver requests. For the NCAA to tell Osuna whether he was eligible, he would first have to transfer.
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The former North Carolina slugger entered the transfer portal in January before committing to Tennessee on Friday, Jan. 31. Tennessee submitted the waiver the ensuing Monday, Feb. 3.
After not hearing anything from the NCAA and the governing body having yet to assign anyone to even review Osuna’s case, the first baseman filed a complaint against the NCAA on Thursday, Feb. 12, one day before the start of Tennessee’s season.
Osuna and his team were hoping they could work around the NCAA with the courts forcing to make the transfer eligible just like they did for Pavia. But despite the cases being nearly identical, the federal judge ruled with the NCAA and against Pavia last Monday, March 3.
Now, Osuna’s only chances of gaining eligibility rests in the hands of the NCAA granting him an additional season of eligibility. Osuna’s open letter is a public cry for eligibility.
“If you were going to oppose my waiver all along, why did you tell me to file one?” Osuna asked. “Why did you allow me to enter the transfer portal? Why did you let all of the student-athletes in their last season of competition at a Division II institution enter the portal? Why would you not provide clarity when I asked for it? … How is the NCAA harmed by letting me play? It is not. But I am irreparably harmed by not getting to play in my final season.”
During the 2024 season at North Carolina, Osuna hit .281 with 17 doubles,14 home runs and 56 RBIs on the Tar Heels run to the College World Series. Despite not joining Tennessee’s roster until two weeks before first pitch, Osuna is the favorite to start at first base for the Vols this season.
