On Friday, Tennessee football quarterback Joey Aguilar had his eligibility hearing in front of Judge Chris Heagerty. After both Aguilar and the NCAA’s representatives fielded questions from Heagerty, he announced that he would not be ruling from the bench.
This means that a decision would not come until later. With the weekend following and President’s Day on Monday, that meant the earliest a decision could come in would be Tuesday.
In the wake of the hearing, college football insider Chris Low and RTI’s Bob Baskerville discussed what went down on their weekly episode of the RTI Low-Down. During the episode, which also featured an interview with VFL Tony White, Low broke down what he was hearing on Aguilar’s chances to win and return to the Vols.
“I’ll say this, one attorney in town who has handled some of these sports eligibility cases told me the other day, as he watched that play out, he doesn’t know if he would feel great about it if he was there on the Aguilar side,” Low said. “But he said, you know, I’ve had tons of cases where I’ve walked out of hearings thinking we’re in trouble and we won. So anybody that says they know, I don’t know if they’re being honest because it could go either way.”
“I don’t know,” Low went on to say later. “I’ve had several different people tell me different things. The one person I trust the most said, looking at it from a lawyer’s perspective, he’s not sure if it was the best day for Aguilar and his side. Ultimately, we’re going to find out, because, ultimately, the only voice or opinion that counts is Judge Heagerty’s.”
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Aguilar’s lawsuit against the NCAA fights back against rules that count junior college seasons against a player’s NCAA eligibility. Aguilar’s side also claims he would be losing out on significant compensation if he were not granted the injunction.
A judge in a similar Diego Pavia case originally sided with the Vanderbilt quarterback last winter, enacting a temporary restraining order against the NCAA. In response, the NCAA granted an extra year of eligibility to players who previously played in junior college and ran out of eligibility during the 2024-25 athletic year.
That ruling gave Aguilar an extra year of eligibility and eventually led to him landing at Tennessee. However, Aguilar played two seasons at Diablo Valley Community College, which is why he argues he should have this final year to play at the NCAA level.
Aguilar just finished his first season as Tennessee’s quarterback. The team finished 8-5 (4-4 SEC), but the offense took a big step back in the right direction. Aguilar posted an SEC-high in passing yards at 3,565 with 24 touchdowns and 10 interceptions.
