RESOLVING THE LEDGER
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Less than a week after being granted an injunction against the NCAA that prevents it from enforcing its transfer rules, former Western Kentucky defensive tackle Victory Vaka signed with Middle Tennessee on Monday.
Vaka filed a lawsuit on Aug. 5 against the NCAA, suing for the ability to transfer after the Hilltoppers non-renewed his scholarship. He entered the portal on Aug. 20 and signed with Middle Tennessee five days later.
The Blue Raiders open their season on Sept. 5 against Murray State . Vaka is eligible to play for Middle Tennessee immediately.
Vaka, a redshirt senior who transferred in from Texas Southern , flew home to California in early April to grieve his mom's death. Vaka told CBS Sports he always planned to return to Western Kentucky for the 2026 season. Nine days before his mom's funeral in May, he received a call from an assistant strength coach. Vaka said the coach provided him with a summer workout plan and told Vaka he was expected back in June.
A few weeks later, on May 27, the Hilltoppers informed Vaka they were canceling his scholarship due to his failure to report with the rest of his team. That designation of a "failure to report" prevented Vaka from entering the transfer portal under the NCAA's aid-and-reduction-or-cancellation exception.
Vaka was set to graduate in the fall. He had one remaining year of eligibility remaining. But with no ability to transfer, Vaka was left with no way to play his final season.
Vaka's story drew national attention after CBS Sports wrote about it in July.
That includes rapper Lil Wayne, who paid for Vaka's legal fees after hearing about his story.
"Fabian Marasciullo, his manager, reached out to me saying the story touched Wayne and he wanted to help in any way possible," Vaka's agent, Jaykwon Jefferson, told CBS Sports.
Wayne paid for the costs associated with hiring college sports attorney Darren Heitner and also flew Vaka and his brother out to his concert on Aug. 1 to meet him. Jefferson called the financial assistance "a major lifesaver."
The NCAA and Heitner were in talks to settle the case out of court, but that fell apart in recent weeks, leading to Vaka's lawsuit.
The 6-foot-3, 335-pound DT is a journeyman in college football terms. He's played for four schools and said he hoped Western Kentucky would be his last.
Looking back at the situation, Vaka told CBS Sports in July he could have communicated better. Other than Western Kentucky flying Vaka back to campus in mid-April and his call with the strength coach, the two sides had no communication between Vaka's mom's death and the staff asking him to report in late May.
Vaka said he told the staff at the time that he thought he could return in June, but offered to return sooner to avoid being removed from the roster.
Western Kentucky did eventually help Vaka file a legislative relief waiver, but that process puts the Hilltoppers in a situation where they basically had to file a waiver against themselves, per CCHA Law partner Paia LaPalombara, because NCAA rules only allow schools to cancel scholarships under limited exceptions.
"This puts institutions (between) a rock and a hard place -- they may want to support a (student-athlete) getting the additional 30-day window, but doing so also means that they're admitting to their own Level III violation by impermissibly removing the (student-athlete's) aid," LaPalombara said via text.
"WKU may have actually put forward a good-faith waiver request to the NCAA to allow the (student-athlete) to enter the portal, as they don't want the (student-athlete) to stay at WKU but also can't (or don't want to) admit to a violation that they impermissibly removed the SA's aid."
Vaka's case illustrates one of the gaps in the NCAA's current system.
Western Kentucky moved on from him months after the transfer portal closed. By classifying his departure as a disciplinary matter, the school prevented him from using the NCAA's aid-cancellation exception.
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