Tennessee’s Joey Aguilar is the latest SEC quarterback to file a lawsuit against the NCAA, hoping to gain another year of college football eligibility.

The complaint was filed Monday in Knox County Chancery Court in Knoxville, Tenn., the home of the Volunteers. It asks for declaratory injunctive relief from the court, a request that has been used in many NCAA eligibility lawsuits to allow an athlete to compete in college while a case is still pending. The Knoxville News first reported the lawsuit’s filing.

Aguilar is challenging NCAA rules that count seasons in junior college against his eligibility clock. His first season in junior college was in 2019 at San Francisco City College, where he redshirted. After the pandemic shut down juco competition in 2020, he played two seasons at Diablo Valley Community College in California before joining Appalachian State in 2023.

The 24-year-old from Antioch, Calif., played the 2023 and 2024 season at App State, then had an eventful 2025. First, he transferred to UCLA, but when Tennessee quarterback Nico Iamaleava entered the transfer portal in the spring and landed with the Bruins, Aguilar also jumped back in the portal and signed with Tennessee.

Aguilar passed for 3,565 yards, 24 touchdowns and 10 interceptions for the Volunteers, who finished 8-5 last season. Tennessee was active in the portal trying to find a replacement for Aguilar, who by NCAA rule is out of eligibility. Tennessee was denied a waiver request to have Aguilar’s eligibility extended.

Aguilar had been part of Vanderbilt quarterback Diego Pavia’s lawsuit challenging the NCAA’s juco rules in federal court in Tennessee, but he was removed from the case last week. Aguilar hired attorney Cameron Norris, signaling he would likely file his own separate lawsuit and a ruling that would allow him to play in 2026. Pavia won a narrow injunction from a judge in December 2024, and the NCAA responded with a narrow waiver that allowed some former juco athletes to gain another year of eligibility during the 2025-26 school year.

That does not apply to Aguilar, though the Pavia’s case and the NCAA’s waiver are cited in Aguilar’s suit.

“The NCAA’s conduct is ongoing and will continue to impose irreparable injury on junior-college players like Aguilar and consumers of college football unless injunctive relief is granted,” the lawsuit says.

Pavia’s lawsuit sparked a wave of legal attacks on NCAA eligibility rules that have grown more and more problematic for big-time college sports. Most recently, a judge in Alabama paved the way for former Crimson Tide men’s basketball player Charles Bediako to return to the team after he declared for the NBA Draft in 2023. Bediako never played in an NBA game but played in the G-League.

Last week, former UCLA basketball player Amari Bailey’s attorney said his client was seeking a return to college after having played 10 NBA games in the 2023-24 season.

Aguilar’s filing in state court cites Tennessee antitrust laws and is indicative of a trend in these cases lately. Plaintiffs, including Bediako, have had more success gaining injunctive relief from judges at the state court level than they have making antitrust claims in federal court.

Ole Miss quarterback Trinidad Chambliss asked the Chancery Court of Lafayette County, Miss., where the University of Mississippi is located, to grant him an injunction that will allow him to play for the Rebels next season.

The NCAA denied a waiver request made by Ole Miss to extend Chambliss’ eligibility by a year based on a previous medical hardship during his first two seasons at Division II Ferris State. Chambliss, who has already signed a new contract with Ole Miss, claims he would be at risk of losing millions in potential earnings by being forced to enter the NFL Draft.

Ole Miss appealed the NCAA’s ruling on the waiver request but has not yet received a response.

Tennessee has been in the market for a potential replacement for Aguilar this offseason,but was unable to land one of the top experienced quarterbacks available in the transfer portal. Colorado transfer Ryan Staub was the lone veteran quarterback to sign with the Vols.