Tennessee basketball star Zakai Zeigler is suing the NCAA for a fifth year of eligibility, arguing that the current four-year set-up “arbitrarily” cost him substantial NIL earnings.

The 22-year-old Zeigler, a two-time SEC Defensive Player of the Year and a third-team All-American this past season, played in 138 games over four years with the Volunteers. He never redshirted, which appears to form the crux of his argument.

According to the suit filed Tuesday in federal court in the Eastern District of Tennessee, Zeigler argues that had he redshirted, he’d have had a five-year eligibility window. Typically, the latter years of that window are the most-lucrative when it comes to NIL.

“Through the redshirt system, NCAA institutions — not athletes — largely control who gets access to the fifth year of eligibility, strategically ‘banking’ eligibility for some athletes while denying it to others, without consideration, based purely on institutional preference and benefit,” the complaint reads in part. “But, because Zeigler participated in athletics for four consecutive years, the NCAA bars him from representing his school in interscholastic competition in the fifth year of the competition window — and thereby excludes him from the market for NIL compensation.”

Zeigler’s suit is similar to one successfully levied by Vanderbilt quarterback Diego Pavia, at least in spirit. Pavia won an extra year of eligibility for himself — and other former junior-college and NAIA transfers — after suing the NCAA on the grounds that his time at a non-member school had cost him NIL earning opportunities.

You can read the full 31-page complaint HERE.