Alberto Osuna seeks injunction enabling him to play baseball for defending CWS champion Tennessee

By Canadian Press on February 12, 2025.

KNOXVILLE, Tenn. (AP) — Vanderbilt quarterback Diego Pavia already won an injunction enabling him to play one more season next fall after a federal judge ruled the time he spent at a junior college shouldn’t count against his eligibility.

Now about 180 miles east of Vanderbilt’s campus, former junior college baseball player Alberto Osuna is going to federal court with a similar case as he attempts to become eligible to play for defending national champion Tennessee this season.

Osuna played the 2021 season at Walters State Community College before transferring to North Carolina, where he played for the last three seasons. He’s arguing that the year he spent at Walters State shouldn’t cost him a season of Division I eligibility.

“The Pavia case fits Osuna like a glove, and, like Pavia, Osuna should be granted injunctive relief,” Chad Hatmaker, a lawyer for Osuna, said in the complaint he filed Wednesday at the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Tennessee.

After spending last season at North Carolina, Osuna believed he had no more Division I eligibility and transferred to Division II program Tampa. He was part of Tampa’s team last fall.

Pavia, who led New Mexico Military Institute to a 2021 junior-college national championship, played at New Mexico State in 2022-23 before transferring to Vanderbilt. Pavia won an injunction in December enabling him to continue playing for Vanderbilt in 2025.

After Pavia won his case, Osuna believed he could get one more year of Division I eligibility, so he entered the transfer portal and landed at Tennessee. Osuna said Tennessee filed a waiver request on Osuna’s behalf on Feb. 3, but the NCAA hasn’t issued a decision.

Tennessee opens its season Friday by hosting Hofstra.

“Given the urgency of Osuna’s situation, he could not wait any longer for the NCAA to issue a decision on his waiver request,” Hatmaker said in his complaint.

The NCAA has appealed the Pavia ruling but offered a waiver allowing athletes in similar situations to play in 2025-26. The NCAA said the waiver was for athletes “who attended and competed at a non-NCAA school for one or more years to remain eligible and compete in 2025-26 if those student-athletes would have otherwise used their final season of competition during the 2024-25 academic year, and meet all other eligibility requirements (e.g., progress toward degree, five-year period of eligibility).”

Hatmaker said that waiver wouldn’t help out Osuna because baseball is a spring sport and its upcoming season doesn’t take place during the 2025-26 school year.

“This arbitrary distinction harms Osuna and is another example of the NCAA’s unlawful restrictions on the market for Division I athletics,” Hatmaker’s complaint said.

The argument made in Pavia’s case and now in Osuna’s case is that the NCAA bylaws violate the Sherman Act by restraining the free market. The idea is that by counting the time they spent at junior colleges against their Division I eligibility, it prevents them from profiting off the name, image and likeness opportunities they would have received by playing a full four years at a Division I program.

Osuna batted .259 with a .359 on-base percentage, 45 homers and 140 RBIs in 177 career games at North Carolina over the last three seasons. He hit .281 with a .376 on-base percentage, 14 homers and 56 RBIs in 62 games last season while helping the Tar Heels reach the College World Series.

___

AP college sports: https://apnews.com/hub/college-sports

The Associated Press

20
-19