• Dan MurphySep 2, 2025, 08:03 PM ET

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    • Covers the Big Ten
    • Joined ESPN.com in 2014
    • Graduate of the University of Notre Dame

A pair of Vanderbilt football players are among 10 athletes suing the NCAA in an effort to force the association to allow college athletes to compete for five seasons rather than four.

Linebacker Langston Patterson and defensive lineman Issa Ouattara filed a class action lawsuit in federal court Tuesday, which claims that the NCAA’s eligibility rules violate antitrust law. The NCAA’s current rules allow athletes to compete for four seasons during a five-year timespan that begins when they enroll in college.

Attorney Ryan Downton said in a news release that the players were not aiming to completely remove any eligibility restrictions but believe they should be able to compete in games for all five years that they are allowed to be on the team.

“We’re not challenging the five-year [limit],” Downton told ESPN Tuesday night. “The question is why do players have to spend one of those five years sitting on the bench? How does that further any of the NCAA’s goal of moving players toward graduation?”

Patterson and Ouattara are both seniors who played in each of their three previous seasons on campus and will be out of eligibility at the end of 2025 under the NCAA’s current rules.

“The NCAA stands by its eligibility rules, including the five-year rule, which enable student-athletes to access the life-changing opportunity to be a student-athlete,” an NCAA spokesperson said in a statement provided to ESPN Tuesday night. “The NCAA is making changes to modernize college sports but attempts to dismantle widely supported academic requirements can only be addressed by partnering with Congress.”

The association has faced more than two dozen lawsuits challenging their eligibility rules in the past two years. In their initial rulings in those cases, judges have largely sided with the NCAA, which argues that the limited time athletes are allowed to play is an important distinction that separates college sports from the pro leagues. However, especially in cases that involve athletes who previously used some of their eligibility while playing at the junior college level, some judges have issued injunctions that allow the athlete to keep playing.

Vanderbilt quarterback Diego Pavia successfully filed for an injunction that is allowing him to start for the Commodores this season despite having already played a combined four full seasons at the junior college and Division I levels. Downton also represented Pavia in his case.

NCAA leaders and their lawyers have raised concerns in other cases that any change in eligibility rules that is forced by the court will set a legal precedent that would threaten the association’s ability to place any limits on how long a player can compete in college — leading to some athletes playing long careers in college and taking opportunities away from future students.

Pavia’s lawsuit, along with the other 20-plus previously filed cases across the country, were only seeking to reverse the restrictions placed on one specific athlete. By filing a class action suit, the athletes in this case are attempting to force the NCAA to change its rules for all Division I college athletes.

Patterson, a team captain, made two tackles last weekend in Vanderbilt’s season-opening win against Charleston Southern. Ouattara did not play due to injury, but coach Clark Lea told reporters Tuesday that he was expected to be back on the field this Saturday against Virginia Tech.