Zakai Zeigler 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.
Zeigler 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 pandemi
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.
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.
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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.
