College athletics is about to undergo another systemic shift just as the expanded College Football Playoffs are intended to return focus to the gridiron instead of courtrooms, the transfer portal, and NIL offers.

Notre Dame, the No. 7 seed, plays host to 10^th-seeded Indiana on Friday night to kick off the new 12-team tournament to decide a national champion. No. 5 seed Texas entertains No. 12 Clemson, No. 9 Tennessee visits No. 8 Ohio State, and No. 6 Penn State hosts No.11 SMU in other first-round games on Saturday. The top four seeds—No. 1 Oregon, No. 2 Georgia, No. 3 Boise State, and No. 4 Arizona State—received first-round byes.

That’s the headline. The subplot is the college football landscape got a bit murkier after a federal judge on Wednesday granted a preliminary injunction allowing Vanderbilt quarterback Diego Pavia to play in 2025. Mr. Pavia sought the injunction to challenge NCAA bylaws that made him ineligible to play Division 1 football next year because he completed his five years to play four, including junior college.

A native of Albuquerque, New Mexico, Mr. Pavia started at New Mexico Military Institute, winning a national junior college championship before transferring to Division 1 New Mexico State at Las Cruces, New Mexico, where he starred for two years. After leading the Aggies to an upset of Auburn in 2023 when he was named the Conference USA Offensive Player of the Year, Mr. Pavia entered the transfer portal and signed with Vanderbilt. This year, he led the Commodores to a 6-6 record, an upset of Alabama, and Vanderbilt’s first bowl game since 2018.

Under current rules, Mr. Pavia, who passed for 2,133 yards and 17 TDs and rushed for another 716 yards and 6 scores, had exhausted his collegiate eligibility. But the quarterback filed suit arguing junior college is not part of the NCAA and should not be counted toward his Division 1 eligibility. U.S. District Judge William L. Campbell, at least temporarily, agreed.

The injunction order restrains the NCAA from applying its eligibility rules against Mr. Pavia, who estimated he could earn $1 million in NIL money if allowed to play another year. 

The matter appears headed for trial, and it’s uncertain how the injunction, which applies only to Mr. Pavia, impacts the eligibility of other junior college players. It’s just what college athletics needed: more confusion.

Rus Bradburd, who spent 16 years as a basketball coach at New Mexico State and Texas-El Paso, and 16 years as an English professor, wrote about the “wild, wild, west” approach to college athletics in his novel, “Big Time,” a satire where sports trump academics.

“We’re in unchartered territory,” Mr. Bradburd told the New York Sun. “College football and college sports in general are going to look a lot different in five years than they do now.  I was all for the players being compensated, but things have changed so quickly and the rollout has been just bad.”    

According to Yahoo Sports, Mr. Pavia’s lawyer, Ryan Downton of the Texas Trial Group, hinted the quarterback will be looking for a Sweet NIL deal for his final season. “While the Court’s ruling does not restrict where Diego can play next season, he loves Vanderbilt and Coach Lea,” Mr. Downton said. “So long as he receives an appropriate NIL package, I expect to see him in the black and gold for as long as he has eligibility remaining.”

With the transfer portal set to close on Dec. 28, coaches, the NCAA, and the courts now have another problem on their hands.