This post was updated July 27 at 5:16 p.m.
Former Appalachian State wide receiver and UCLA transfer Kaedin Robinson has filed a lawsuit against the NCAA in the United States District Court of the Central District for California in an attempt to play the 2025-2026 season in Westwood.
The NCAA denied Robinson’s waiver to play for UCLA in March because he did not meet the criteria for an extension of his collegiate eligibility, having already exhausted it all, according to the NCAA.
In his 19-page complaint filed last Tuesday the receiver claimed that the NCAA penalized him for playing with the ASA Brooklyn Avengers, a junior college in New York, as well as facing “significant” disruptions caused by the COVID-19 pandemic.
Robinson further alleged that the NCAA’s decision severely limits his opportunities, and that the organization relied on an unlawful five-year eligibility rule that violated antitrust laws.
“The NCAA’s anticompetitive conduct, coupled with its unreasonable denial of Robinson’s meritorious request for a waiver, thus threatens him with immediate irreparable harm,” the lawsuit states.
Not only does the NCAA decision prevent him from playing his final collegiate season at UCLA – where he could be Nico Iamaleava’s top pass-catching target – it also prevents him from receiving the $450,000 name, image and likeness contract that UCLA offered him.
Robinson’s lawsuit comes after former Vanderbilt quarterback – and past junior college player at the New Mexico Military Institute – Diego Pavia was issued an extra year of eligibility following an injunction from a Tennessee federal judge in December.
Similar to Robinson, Pavia sued the NCAA in November, claiming that the body violated antitrust laws by not allowing him to earn compensation from the NIL and by counting his year at a junior college towards his overall NCAA eligibility. The body deemed him ineligible for an additional season in accordance with the Five-Year rule.
While the decision from Judge William Campbell is not a final ruling, it allows Pavia to compete until the case is resolved, throwing a cog in the NCAA’s decision-making process regarding Robinson and other junior college athletes.
“Despite the obvious and immediate harm that Robinson will suffer if not granted the requested relief, the NCAA has refused to grant him a waiver of the Five-Year Rule (and thus also refused to grant him the Pavia Waiver, which is dependent on the waiver of the Five-Year Rule),” the lawsuit states. “The NCAA has done so confusingly and inconsistently – even though it granted the Pavia Waiver on a blanket basis for purposes of the Intercollegiate Competition Rule. This Court’s immediate intervention is needed to right this wrong.”
The NCAA’s Five-Year rule allows students four years of play in a five-year period. However, that five-year period starts on a student-athlete’s first day of classes at a “collegiate institution,” which includes junior colleges and other non-NCAA institutions.
This Five-Year rule has faced intense backlash and antitrust lawsuits from junior college athletes, as it penalizes athletes who competed at schools that the National Junior College Athletic Association governs, where opportunities to earn compensation through NIL are limited.
The NCAA issued a blanket waiver for the 2025-2026 academic year in response to Pavia’s injunction, granting an extra year of eligibility to Pavia and other junior college athletes who would have otherwise exhausted their collegiate eligibility.
The inconsistency in application between Pavia’s case and Robinson’s has led to the lawsuit, where Robinson is seeking the restoration of his eligibility alongside the retrieval of compensatory and punitive damage payments, as well as attorneys’ fees.
After his JUCO stint, Robinson spent a season at Central Florida, where he logged just one catch – a thirty-yard touchdown grab. He then spent the following three seasons at Appalachian State, boasting 14 touchdowns and amassing over 2,000 receiving yards.
Robinson initially came to Westwood with former Appalachian State quarterback Joey Aguilar, who was slotted in as the team’s new signal caller before Iamaleava transferred to UCLA.
The 6-foot-2 pass catcher had his best season to date in 2023, when he caught 67 catches for 905 yards and 10 touchdowns. He also earned an All-Sun Belt First Team selection in 2024, catching 53 passes for 840 yards before suffering a season-ending injury just nine games into the season.
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