{"id":766706,"date":"2026-02-21T11:54:17","date_gmt":"2026-02-21T11:54:17","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/766706\/"},"modified":"2026-02-21T11:54:17","modified_gmt":"2026-02-21T11:54:17","slug":"judge-denies-joey-aguilar-preliminary-injunction-against-ncaa","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/766706\/","title":{"rendered":"Judge denies Joey Aguilar preliminary injunction against NCAA"},"content":{"rendered":"<\/p>\n

Tennessee<\/a> quarterback Joey Aguilar<\/a> was denied\u00a0a preliminary injunction against the NCAA, making him ineligible to play for the Volunteers in the 2026 season, according to court documents obtained by On3\u2019s Chris Low<\/a>. Chancellor\u00a0Chris Heagerty, the judge in this lawsuit, ruled from the Knox County Chancery Court on Friday.<\/p>\n

Aguilar, who threw for 3,565 yards with 24 touchdowns and only 10 interceptions in 2025, was part of the class-action Pavia v. NCAA suit. But he later pulled out and decided to file his own suit against the NCAA earlier this month, and he was previously granted a temporary restraining order in the lawsuit Feb. 4.<\/p>\n

Aguilar argued his years playing at the junior college level should not count toward his NCAA eligibility clock. The 24-year-old quarterback has spent seven years in college football, but only three seasons at NCAA member schools. The NCAA allows players to compete for four seasons within five years. And it counts junior college seasons toward that total and time period, even though junior colleges are not part of the NCAA.<\/p>\n

In the previous TRO order, Heagerty cited that Aguilar demonstrated a likelihood of success on the merits of his claim, likely violating the Tennessee Trade Practices Act. The court also saw that Aguilar would suffer immediate and irreparable harm if the order was not issued. Aguilar argued he needed to know immediately if he was able to play the 2026 season. Friday\u2019s ruling dissolved the TRO.<\/p>\n

\u201cAlthough the Plaintiff has not proffered evidence to demonstrate an effect on the public other than some figures from a decade-old report regarding how much revenue and jobs the University of Tennessee\u2019s football team brings in to Tennessee and to the Knoxville community, the Court notes that it is impossible to determine what effect, if any, the relief sought by the Plaintiff in this civil action could have on the public interest or downstream consumers,\u201d Heagerty wrote in his order.<\/p>\n

\u201cFor example, the uncertainty regarding the NCAA\u2019s eligibility rules may cause confusion for consumers of NCAA football media which may, in turn, negatively impact the consumers and the public interest. Regardless, the Court notes that the Plaintiff has, as discussed in greater detail above, proffered no evidence to demonstrate that the alleged anticompetitive conduct affects the public interest or how the public, i.e., downstream consumers, would be positively affected if the \u2018JUCO\u2019 rule was not enforced. Thus, the Court concludes that this factor neither favors nor disfavors the Plaintiff.\u201d<\/p>\n

Tennessee head coach Josh Heupel<\/a> recently filed a brief supporting Aguilar, stating, \u201cUT would love to have Aguilar back for the upcoming 2026 season. But UT needs to know whether he will be eligible. It is essential for Joey, his coaches and teammates, and for UT to all know the status of his eligibility as soon as possible.\u201d<\/p>\n

As he awaited a ruling, Aguilar was also invited to the NFL Scouting Combine. On3 reported<\/a> he planned to attend the event for a 48-hour window rather than the full five days in order to retain his eligibility, should he receive a favorable ruling.<\/p>\n

Aguilar redshirted the 2019 season at City College of San Francisco. The COVID-19 pandemic canceled his 2020 season. He played 2021-22 at Diablo Valley before arriving at Appalachian State<\/a> in 2023. He spent two seasons playing for the Mountaineers before transferring to UCLA<\/a> in Dec. 2024. Aguilar eventually transferred to Tennessee in the spring, with Nico Iamaleava<\/a> landing at UCLA.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe didn\u2019t know who he was until Nico left and he came and it was wonderful, but it doesn\u2019t mean we break the rules \u2014 it doesn\u2019t mean the Vols get something everyone else doesn\u2019t,\u201d NCAA attorney Taylor Askew said in last week\u2019s injunction hearing.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Tennessee quarterback Joey Aguilar was denied\u00a0a preliminary injunction against the NCAA, making him ineligible to play for the…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":766707,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[7,5986,49,48],"class_list":{"0":"post-766706","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-ncaa-football","8":"tag-football","9":"tag-joey-aguilar-19-freedom","10":"tag-ncaa","11":"tag-ncaa-football"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nfl\/116108490477028994","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/766706","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=766706"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/766706\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/766707"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=766706"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=766706"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=766706"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}