Tennessee quarterback Joey Aguilar is in the midst of a legal battle to return to the Volunteers’ football program for the 2026 season. Aguilar is just one of many names who are going through or have gone through the process in the past, such as Vanderbilt quarterback Diego Pavia, Ole Miss quarterback Trinidad Chambliss, and Alabama forward Charles Bediako.
Aguilar was originally a plaintiff in Diego Pavia’s lawsuit against the NCAA before separating from it last week due to the nature of the slow-moving process. Aguilar is trying to figure out whether to prepare for Tennessee’s spring practice or a future in the NFL, after all. In the short term, though, Aguilar has been allowed to join the Vols’ team for winter workouts after a judge granted Aguilar’s request for a temporary restraining order last week. A preliminary injunction has now been set for this Friday as another important date in Aguilar’s quest to return to Tennessee.
Aguilar’s lawsuit argues that his participation at the junior college level should not count towards his NCAA eligibility. In that case, Aguilar would have one more season on the table after spending two seasons at App State and one season at Tennessee. While Aguilar’s return to Knoxville would be the most advantageous outcome for the Vols’ upcoming season, it does present a slippery slope for the college football world as a whole.
On3 college football insider Chris Low shared his thoughts on the situation during Monday’s episode of The RTI Low-Down.
“If Joey wins and is granted a temporary injunction to play, it’s going to open the floodgates,” Low said. “It’s going to change, even more so, it’s going to change college sports. Because in his case, anybody that has gone to junior college and wants to come back and play – and I’m not one who’s going to stand here and wag the finger at players. Because if you’re Joey Aguilar, you’ve got a chance to come back (to UT) and make $2 million, I don’t know that Joey has an NFL future. He might, but it’s certainly not a slam dunk. So, if he’s got a chance to come back and play another year of college football, make $2 million, how can you blame him for trying? If he were my son, if he were your son, ‘yeah, go for it, son.’ I get that part of it completely.”
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Low also says that while Aguilar’s situation has its differences with the other major players who are fighting back against the NCAA, the common trend amongst all of them is the effort to alter the norm when it comes to the eligibility practices that the sport has primarily seen for quite some time now.
“What does it mean for the rest of college sports? I don’t know,” Low said. “I think what’s going to happen with all these cases, and they’re not all alike, I want to be clear. (Charles) Bediako case is different from Joey because Bediako left school, went into the draft, signed a pro contract. Now, he’s back. Joey hasn’t done that, okay? Same with Trinidad Chambliss at Ole Miss. His hearing comes up this week as well… So, they’re all a little bit different, but they still all sort of challenge the traditional eligibility window that we’ve come to know in college athletics.”
The currently unresolved cases loom over the sport’s future, and it’s incredibly difficult to project which way the courts will rule and what it may or may not do for future players down the road. Either way, though, it’s a tricky situation.
“So, I don’t know where this leads to if they all win,” Low said. “Let me say this about Joey. Joey’s been a great ambassador in the short time that he’s been there at Tennessee. In no way, shape, or form do I hold any ill will toward him trying. If he were my son, I’d probably tell him to do the same thing. But for the sport as a whole, Bob? I don’t know that it’s a good thing.”
Low spoke much more on Aguilar’s situation and all the moving pieces around it on Monday’s episode of The RTI Low-Down alongside co-host Bob Baskerville.
Check out the full segment below:
