Jack Hasz wants one more year.
The former Creighton Prep offensive lineman is suing the NCAA in hopes of playing one more season of college football.
The U.S. District Court in Omaha is one of the latest settings in the ongoing debate over NCAA rules.
In December, Vanderbilt quarterback Diego Pavia won a court case against the NCAA. As a former junior college player, Pavia argued his time at a two-year school should not count against his Division I eligibility.
After the ruling, the NCAA Division I Board of Directors announced a waiver that gave eligibility back to former junior college athletes for the 2025-26 school year, while also appealing the judge’s decision.
Hasz previously attended Iowa Western Community College in Council Bluffs. It gave him the opportunity to get stronger physically and improve himself as a teammate.
“It was basically a chance for me to become the player I wanted to be,” Hasz said. “I didn’t have any Division I offers.”
Due to factors like the COVID-19 pandemic and starting lower on the depth chart, he played only three full seasons in the past six years.
After Iowa Western, Hasz transferred to the University of Buffalo for two years. The Prep graduate played in just four games his first year at Buffalo, potentially opening up the opportunity for a redshirt. He started at center for the University of Nevada Las Vegas, or UNLV, in the last two seasons.
In March, UNLV applied for Hasz to get the “Pavia” waiver, as it’s known.
In the meantime, he earned an invite to a local pro day with the NFL’s Las Vegas Raiders.
“I was notified, the morning of, by a Raiders employee who was saying that since you’re waiting on this waiver to be processed, you can’t attend our local pro day, and therefore I wasn’t draft eligible,” Hasz recalled.
The missed opportunity was difficult.
“I was heartbroken,” Hasz said.
“I try to keep a small circle but told the people close to me, because I was excited for it,” Hasz said. “It’s an opportunity that every kid dreams of, putting on your abilities in front of NFL GMs, head coaches, position coaches, all that. And to have that taken away, was really tough.”
He knew he had one option left.
“It was at that point I knew you can’t play both sides of it,” Hasz said, “and I really had to kind of dedicate everything to this extra year.”
Communication between UNLV, the NCAA and the athlete from Omaha dwindled, he said.
More bad news followed. In May, Hasz’s college waiver was denied.
The NCAA gave eligibility back only to former JUCO athletes who were less than five years out of high school, not including the season already waived due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
The NCAA rule says athletes have five years to play four college seasons. The association calls it the period of eligibility. In court, it was referred to as the five-year clock.
“I think a lot of people in my situation had opportunities, not necessarily taken away from them,” Hasz said, “but halted their life waiting on something that wasn’t granted to us.”
Many former junior college athletes have filed lawsuits or publicly spoke out about unclear eligibility guidance. An NCAA lawyer said there have been 27 cases like Hasz’s, during a hearing.
On Friday, the U.S. District Court in Omaha heard his case. Lawyers argued over a preliminary injunction motion, which would temporarily allow Hasz to play college football if approved by Senior District Judge Joseph Battaillon.
Rob Futhey, Hasz’s lawyer, argued the five-year clock limits name, image and likeness, or NIL, opportunities for former junior college players.
“The squeeze that’s put on junior college athletes like Jack is they may start at a junior college and go there for one to two years,” Futhey said, “but their clock has already started ticking for their eligibility under the NCAA rules.”
People who enlist in the military or go on a religious mission trip are exempt from the five-year restriction. He’s asking the NCAA to not play “fast and loose” with its principles, Futhey said at the hearing.
“There needs to be a recognition that this one-size-fits-all approach for everyone doesn’t need to apply,” Futhey said. “And the only thing I’m saying is that they’ve already recognized that the one-size-fits-all approach doesn’t fit for everybody.”
In court, Judge Bataillon asked NCAA lead attorney Matt Ralph how his client is allowed to create eligibility guidelines that end up affecting other organizations, like junior college athletics.
The requirements define the product by outlining who constitutes a college athlete, Ralph said at the hearing. In its court filing, the association argues the five-year clock “implements a policy that NCAA athletes also be students.”
The NCAA should be allowed to write its own rules, Ralph said in court, arguing federal courts can’t interfere with a private association’s guidelines.
In an emailed statement to Nebraska Public Media News, NCAA spokesperson Michelle Hosick said the association “stands by its eligibility rules, including the five-year rule, which enable student-athletes and schools to have fair competition and ensure broad access to the unique and life-changing opportunity to be a student-athlete.”
Hosick continued, “The NCAA is making changes to modernize college sports but attempts to alter the enforcement of foundational eligibility rules – approved and supported by membership leaders – makes a shifting environment even more unsettled.”
The NCAA argues Hasz played four full seasons of Division I football, when counting his first season at the Buffalo where he played in four games. Futhey is asking for that season to be counted as a redshirt year.
Hasz said he understands there needs to be a cutoff to define college athletes.
“I agree that you shouldn’t have 30-40-year-olds playing college football with brand new eligibility or unlimited eligibility. That’s not necessarily what I’m fighting for,” Hasz said. “We’re really relating it back to what Diego Pavia started saying that years spent at a junior college or non-NCAA institution shouldn’t count against eligibility.”
The NCAA did not respond to a specific request for comment on the argument that Hasz doesn’t want to change the five-year rule but change when the clock starts.
It’s not just a chance to play that’s at stake.
According to Hasz, he also missed out on the chance to visit and potentially transfer to a bigger school while his status was pending.
“I was planning on going up to Northwestern and then Iowa State as well,” Hasz said, “and then obviously couldn’t end up doing either of those.”
Iowa State finished last season 11-3 and Big 12 Conference runner-up.
Hasz estimates he could lose out on hundreds of thousands of dollars in NIL payments if he doesn’t play this year, and also fears sitting out would diminish his NFL prospects. In the last four years, he has been paid approximately $20,000 for NIL appearances, Hasz said.
The plaintiff needs to prove “irreparable harm,” in a motion for preliminary injunction. Irreparable harm cannot be based on future speculation like NIL payments or NFL prospects, Ralph said in court.
In this 28th case of a junior college player arguing for eligibility, the NCAA faces another legal hurdle in its seemingly endless fight to protect its own regulations.
For Hasz, he said it’s not too late to join a Division I roster.
“UNLV is definitely the staff I’ve talked with the most,” Hasz said.
He’s not sure whether other schools would still be interested, he said.
With college football practices starting in the next week, Judge Bataillon will decide on the motion for a preliminary injunction any day now.
Meanwhile, Hasz hopes for one more chance to snap the ball.
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