In 2026, the college football landscape is looking more like a rerun of a long-running series than a traditional four-year career path - and no one is embodying that better than Tennessee quarterback Joey Aguilar.
Aguilar, who began his college journey all the way back in 2019 at City College of San Francisco, is now in the middle of a legal battle with the NCAA to extend his eligibility into what would be his eighth year of college football. Yes, eighth. And thanks to a temporary restraining order granted on Wednesday, he might just get that chance.
The case hinges on a key point: Aguilar’s time at the junior college level. He redshirted in 2019, and the 2020 season was wiped out by COVID-19 - two seasons that didn’t exactly offer him a chance to shine, let alone profit.
Now, Aguilar is arguing that those JUCO years shouldn’t count against his NCAA eligibility clock. So far, the courts are listening.
If the restraining order holds and the NCAA can't enforce its eligibility rules against him, Aguilar could return to the field in 2026 - a full seven years after he first suited up at the JUCO level. It’s a situation that’s raising eyebrows across the sport, and even drawing some tongue-in-cheek responses from fellow coaches.
Florida Gators head coach Jon Sumrall couldn’t resist poking fun at the situation during a press conference on Wednesday. With a grin, he quipped, “We’re going to file a temporary restraining order to bring back Tim Tebow.
I don’t know what the hell is going on with all of that. We’ll see if Tebow gets his years back.”
It was a lighthearted jab, but it speaks to the broader uncertainty around eligibility rules in this new era of college football - where NIL money, transfer portal movement, and now legal challenges are reshaping the sport in real time.
Aguilar isn’t alone in this fight. Vanderbilt quarterback Diego Pavia is also challenging the NCAA’s stance on JUCO eligibility, arguing that junior college athletes were effectively excluded from the financial and exposure benefits that NCAA players have enjoyed in recent years.
Pavia’s attorney, Ryan Downton, laid out the case back in December: “We’re not saying the NCAA can’t have eligibility requirements. But a junior college season shouldn’t be the equivalent of an NCAA season when the junior college season has no meaningful opportunities to earn NIL, no television exposure.”
That argument hits at the heart of the issue. JUCO players like Aguilar and Pavia didn’t get the same opportunities to build their brand, earn NIL income, or play in front of national audiences. And now they’re asking for the chance to make up for lost time.
It’s a compelling case, especially when you consider how much the business of college football has changed. Players are no longer just student-athletes - they’re entrepreneurs, influencers, and, in many cases, the face of their program. For some, extending a college career by another year or two isn’t just about football - it’s about maximizing earnings and exposure before the NFL window closes, or never opens.
Of course, not every program is in a position to benefit. Florida, for example, is heading into a new era without DJ Lagway, and Sumrall’s Tebow comment - while clearly a joke - underscores the frustration some coaches feel about the lack of clarity in eligibility rulings.
Still, the Aguilar and Pavia cases could set a precedent. If JUCO time is ultimately ruled separate from NCAA eligibility, we might see more veteran players using legal avenues to extend their careers - especially those who missed out on NIL opportunities during the early days of the movement.
For now, all eyes are on the courts - and on Joey Aguilar, who might just become the longest-tenured college quarterback of the NIL era.