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Tennessee's Zakai Zeigler files lawsuit against NCAA, challenging redshirt rule for 5th year of eligilbility

Zakai Ziegler finished his athletic eligibility at Tennessee with the end of the Volunteers' 2024-25 men's basketball season. However, the guard has filed a lawsuit against the NCAA seeking a fifth year of eligibility.

Ziegler has already played four seasons for Tennessee and didn't begin his college career until 2021, one year after the 2020-21 class that was allowed one more year of eligibility lost during the COVID-19 pandemic.

In the lawsuit, filed in the Eastern District Court of Tennessee, Zeigler is seeking a preliminary injunction that would allow him to play the 2025-26 season. He is challenging the NCAA rule that an athlete has four years of eligibility within a five-year window.

Zeigler, 22, isn't allowed an opportunity to earn NIL money for a fifth year because he's used up all of his eligibility. As the lawsuit argues, that deprives him of a fifth year, "the most lucrative year of the eligibility window for the vast majority of athletes."

How lucrative? The lawsuit argues that Zeigler could earn between $2 million and $4 million in a fifth year based on his record of success and visibility playing in the SEC. Those figures are projections from the Spyre Sports Group, which facilitates Tennessee's NIL collective.

Athletes who receive a redshirt are allowed a fifth year of eligibility, which gives them one more year to earn NIL income. A freshman who was redshirted, for example, would still be able to earn NIL money even if he or she doesn't play.

As the filing, the documents of which were posted online by Boise State professor Sam Ehrlich,.reads:

"Many players, however, do compete in the fifth year of their eligibility window. And they can earn NIL compensation for all five of those years. Had Zeigler been withheld from competing in sports during one of those four years, perhaps by redshirting, the NCAA rules would permit him to participate again next year. And this is true even if he would have slowed his academic progress and taken five years to graduate."

Zeigler graduated in May, majoring in retail and merchandising management, and would pursue a graduate degree during a fifth year of eligibility.

This is different from the lawsuit Vanderbilt quarterback Diego Pavia filed against the NCAA, claiming that he should be allowed a fifth year of eligibility because he played his first two years for New Mexico Military Institute, a junior college. In December, Pavia was granted an injunction allowing him to play the 2025 college football season.

Last season with the Vols, the 5-foot-9 Zeigler averaged 13.6 points, 7.4 assists and 1.9 steals while shooting 32% on 122 3-point attempts. He was named a third-team All-American, and won first-team All-SEC and SEC defensive player of the year honors for two consecutive seasons. The Volunteers finished 30-8, 12-6 in the SEC, and advanced to the NCAA tournament's Elite Eight before losing to Houston.

Zeigler holds the Tennessee single-season (275) and career (747) records for assists, and career steals with 251.

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