Diego Pavia's eligibility lawsuit opens with poem, cites NBA draftee headed to Baylor
Diego Pavia is challenging an NCAA rule that counts athletes' junior-college years against their NCAA eligibility.
A lawyer representing Vanderbilt University quarterback and 2025 Heisman Trophy finalist Diego Pavia began a legal filing with a poem — a rare move in the legal profession. The memorandum, which was filed in federal court Friday in Nashville, argues that the NCAA’s recent decision to allow a 2023 NBA draft pick to return to college should also permit Pavia and more than two dozen other former junior college athletes like him to participate in NCAA football in 2026 and 2027.
Even though Pavia plans to enter the 2026 NFL Draft, he is following through with the lawsuit against the NCAA that challenges the organization’s policy of counting junior college seasons against Division I eligibility.
As reported by The Athletic, Baylor University announced on Wednesday that James Nnaji, the 31st pick in the 2023 NBA Draft, will join the Bears after playing professional basketball in Spain and Turkey. The 21-year-old Nnaji was drafted by the Detroit Pistons, and his rights were later traded to Charlotte and then the New York Knicks. He has yet to play in an NBA game or sign an NBA contract.
Pavia’s legal brief cites the NCAA’s decision to grant Nnaji eligibility in its argument on behalf of former JUCO athletes. Ryan Downton, the attorney representing Pavia and the other former JUCO athletes, argues that if athletes’ years of prior professional experience don’t count against their eligibility, then athletes’ previous JUCO experience also shouldn’t count.
The NCAA’s decision to grant eligibility to pro 🏀 players who’ve been drafted by the NBA has found its way into a court filing.
Diego Pavia’s attorneys are seeking to extend the “Pavia” waiver granted by the NCAA for additional seasons.
And they included some🎅🏻🎄related fun. pic.twitter.com/BA8hbz2TJu
— Mit Winter (@WinterSportsLaw) December 27, 2025
The legal document emphasized its point with a playful reference to Clement Clarke Moore’s famous holiday poem “A Visit from St. Nicholas.”
“‘Twas the night before Christmas, and all through the NCAA clearinghouse, not a creature was stirring, not even a mouse,” the filing begins, its first page written in an old English font.
At the end of that page, the poetry ends and the legal argument commences: “When what to my wandering eyes should appear, but … the hypocrisy of the NCAA granting four years of eligibility to a 21-year-old European professional basketball player with four years of professional experience who was drafted by an NBA team two years ago.”
The legal filing notes that Nnaji, who has also played in NBA Summer League games, will be 25 before exhausting his eligibility.