NCAA Piles Up Three Wins in Baseball Eligibility Lawsuits

It may have taken a college football ref to give the NCAA a favorable call. 

In the past week, two judges in the South ruled against baseball players who were seeking temporary injunctions to extend their SEC careers. The players initially appeared to have a strong chance of winning after a judge granted Vanderbilt quarterback Diego Pavia an injunction that will let him play another year of college football in 2025. Pavia argued that NCAA rules counting time in junior college violated federal antitrust law, and the judge in that case said his claims had a “strong likelihood of success” at trial.

After the injunction was granted in the Pavia case, the NCAA granted a blanket waiver in December to all athletes who would need it for the 2025–26 academic year. But that didn’t apply to this year, and with the baseball season starting in February, two players sued immediately.

Georgia outfielder Dylan Goldstein and Tennessee first baseman Alberto Osuna—both of whom played in junior college and were out of eligibility prior to the Pavia case—sought temporary injunctions against the NCAA, citing Pavia as precedent. 

Both lost and are likely finished with their Division I careers, although Goldstein’s loss came with a twist: Judge Tripp Self has a side gig as a college football ref.

Last week, Self declined to grant Goldstein the temporary restraining order that would have let him play, writing that “Goldstein does not have a likelihood of success” at trial. Days later, Goldstein’s lawyers filed a motion for voluntary dismissal, dropping the case entirely.

Between last week’s ruling and Tuesday’s motion, Goldstein’s lawyer Louis Cohan had filed a motion requesting the judge recuse himself from the case over because his reffing job meant that his “impartiality might reasonably be questioned.”

Cohan points out that Self lists “NCAA Football Official” in his Twitter bio. “He literally defines himself by that relationship” with the NCAA, Cohan told Front Office Sports in an email. “To Mr. Goldstein, it certainly seemed the Judge had a conflict of interest.” (Cohan added that, “Self is a good Judge and well respected.”)

Regardless of Self’s accused bias, Cohan saw the case as doomed once another judge in Tennessee issued a similar ruling. On Monday, slugger Alberto Osuna—who had played three years at North Carolina and a year at a community college—lost his bid for a restraining order that would have let him join college baseball’s defending champions.

“After the decision in Osuna, and given the timing and expense of continued litigation, dismissal seemed the only viable option,” Cohan told FOS.

The judge in Osuna’s case was more sympathetic, but came to the same conclusion.

“For an organization that professes to prioritize the well-being of its student-athletes, the NCAA’s conduct has in many ways been questionable at best and self-interested at worst,” Judge Charles Atley. “Still, Plaintiff’s extraordinary talents cannot alone justify the extraordinary remedy he seeks.”

Unlike Goldstein, Osuna may keep pressing his case, though he’s unlikely to get a legal remedy in time for this season. A lawyer for Osuna told media outlets,“We are weighing our options.”

The NCAA declined to comment on either case. In the Goldstein case, its lawyer argued that the outfielder was “opportunistically trying to take advantage” of the Pavia situation.

In a longer-shot case last month, Trey Ciulla-Hall sought an injunction letting him play at Maryland after spending four years at Division II Stonehill. In addition to an antitrust complaint, Ciulla-Hall cited confusion over DII and DIII eligibility rules during the pandemic. He lost that case as well.