If Joey Aguilar wins his lawsuit against the NCAA, which was filed in Knox County last week (per Knox News), he’ll likely be the Tennessee Vols’ starting quarterback in 2026.

Aguilar, who will turn 25 in June, is seeking an additional season of eligibility due to the fact that he’s only played three seasons of NCAA college football — two seasons at Appalachian State and one season at Tennessee (he played two seasons of junior college at Diablo Valley Community College).

According to Adam Sparks of the Knoxville News Sentinel, Aguilar “initially is seeking a temporary restraining order against the NCAA, whose rules say he has exhausted his eligibility. Ultimately, he wants an injunction that would allow him to play for Tennessee in the 2026 season.”

An initial ruling in favor of Joey Aguilar doesn’t mean he’ll for sure be able to return to Tennessee in 2026

VolQuest’s Austin Price joined 104.5 The Zone’s Ramon and Will on Tuesday to discuss the Aguilar situation.

Price pointed out that if the initial ruling goes in Aguilar’s favor (the TRO), it doesn’t necessarily mean he’ll be under center for the Vols this fall. The NCAA could still fight the decision.

“How much does the NCAA fight back?” said Price. “How much does the NCAA appeal? All those things, I think, are to be determined. But I would venture to say there’s a pretty good chance he gets favorable news out of this. But it’s the court system, and any time you involve judges and the court, trying to pretend that you know, ends up being wrong a lot of times.

“So again, one would imagine that because it’s in Knox County, Tennessee, and there will be a local judge, it would be very similar to what we just saw at Alabama (with Charles Bediako). Now, that was a little bit of a different deal, because they were just trying to get the 10 day TRO. This (with Aguilar) is trying to get a full year of eligibility back. But either way, one would imagine that he would get at least a favorable ruling on the front end. Now the question is: how long does it last? How much does the NCAA fight back?”

“Again, even if he got a favorable ruling on the front end, and the NCAA decided to fight it, that’s where it gets tricky,” added Price. “Because you can find out several months from now that, ‘Sorry, the appeal was overturned,’ and all of a sudden it’s back to the two-man race (with George MacIntyre and Faizon Brandon). So everybody has to continue to compete in battle and try to improve.”

Essentially, it could still be a while, even if a favorable ruling is initially handed down, before Tennessee has full clarity on whether Aguilar will be eligible in 2026.

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