Vanderbilt quarterback Diego Pavia prepares to throw out a ceremonial first pitch before a game between Vanderbilt and Arkansas at Hawkins Field in Nashville, Tenn., Friday, March 28, 2025. Andrew Nelles / The Tennessean / USA TODAY NETWORK via Imagn Images

Diego Pavia Talks About Offers to Leave Vanderbilt and Why He Stayed

Originally posted on Vanderbilt Commodores on SI
By Taylor Hodges | Last updated Jun 17, 2025 11:00 AM ET

For the first time in a while, there is some hype and optimism around the Vanderbilt football team. Often relegated to the butt of jokes, Vanderbilt’s 2024 season was one of its best and ended with a bowl win.

Quarterback Diego Pavia is a big reason why there’s hype in Nashville. He’s talented and has a personality that makes everyone love him (which is a good thing)…of course leading the Commodores to a win against then-No. 1 Alabama helps with that too.

But Pavia wouldn’t be playing if not for a judge granting him another year of eligibility and if not for Pavia’s love for Vanderbilt.

Pavia made an appearance on Bussin’ with the Boys, a popular podcast and YouTube show hosted by Will Compton and Taylor Lewan, and talked about a few different things including a pretty big bombshell.

$4.5M for Diego Pavia to hit the portal, are you taking that? pic.twitter.com/U2kVHATI20
— Bussin' With The Boys (@BussinWTB) June 17, 2025

In the episode, Pavia talks about his NIL experiences and confirms an SEC team offered him $4 million.

“I never flirted with (leaving Vanderbilt). The numbers are great, but winning is more important to me,” he said. “It was less reaching out to me, it was more reaching out to, like, my brothers and my family and stuff.”

It’s not surprising Pavia was sought after, even if he didn’t enter the transfer portal. He had 2,133 passing yards and 17 touchdowns and 716 rushing yards and six touchdowns last season. He had some of most memorable moments of the 2024 season (everything in the Alabama post-game).

“They told me the things that I wanted to hear,” Pavia said about Vanderbilt’s coaching staff. “How they’re going to build the offense, what receivers are they going to go get. And they were telling me ‘we could pay you that, but we are not going to have enough money to go get these guys to go throw the ball around,’ it made sense to me.”