Appearing on the latest podcast episode of 'Bussin' With The Boys,' Vanderbilt quarterback Diego Pavia made instant headlines for his trash-talking of the Big Ten Conference -- verbal daggers that intermittently spanned nearly the entirety of his 90-minute interview.
But Pavia also dropped an SEC bombshell when asked how much he heard about getting back into the NCAA Transfer Portal following his breakout 2024 season, in which he threw for 2,293 yards with 20 touchdowns and added 801 rushing yards as well as another eight rushing touchdowns.
"A lot," Pavia told BWTB co-host Will Compton. "It was less reaching out to me and more reaching out to my brothers and stuff.
"Yeah, I don't know if I'm supposed to share but anywhere from $4 to $4.5 (million). SEC."
The Pavia continued to pile onto the Big Ten Conference when fellow co-host Taylor Lewan, a former Michigan All-America selection, asked about that conference.
"You want to play with the best, you don't want to play with the Big Ten," Pavia said. "You ignore those calls. You ignore those calls, you know that. The Big Ten, you have like Ohio State, Oregon, Michigan, Penn State.
"You really only have four games a year. But the SEC, it's like week after week after week, you're going to get beat on. In the Big Ten, you're not getting beat on by the Purdues and Nebraskas. That's real, though."
Reminded of Iowa, Pavia delivered what stands -- at least this entire decade -- as the recurring punchline.
"You've gotta score seven points to beat Iowa," said the former junior college and New Mexico State quarterback who earned a sixth year for the upcoming season at Vanderbilt.
Pavia's thoughts on the College Football Playoff and an expansion to 16 teams?
"I think the SEC and the Big Ten should obviously get the four (automatic bids) and then they can do whatever they want to with the rest," he said.
Told Vanderbilt was presently slotted 13th in the 16-team SEC Power Rankings on ESPN?
"It's probably by some fat guy who sits on a computer all day," he cracked.
Earlier in the podcast, Pavia declared Vanderbilt a national title contender and evidenced its residency in the SEC as the key pathway.
"You win 10 games in the SEC, you're in the tournament and then it's anyone's game," Pavia said.
Pavia delighted in telling host Taylor Lewan the three conferences of the NFL are the "AFC, NFC and SEC" while proclaiming the SEC's superiority over the Big Ten.
Compton then asked, "And you like you?"
"I like me, over everyone," Pavia said.
Pavia also revealed why he still likes the junior college football scene and also what it was like to be recruited -- ever so briefly -- by then-Jackson State head coach Deion Sanders.
"This is why I like JuCo, because the coaches there ... there's a lot of politics now in D-1 because who gets paid more is going to play," he said. "In JuCo, it don't matter if you're a five-star or a no-star, best player is going to play because coach is trying to make it out, too."
As for that recruitment by Coach Prime?
"Deion was so real, he was like, 'This ain't no 50-50. My son's playing regardless,'" Pavia recalled.
"Even if you were better?" Lewan asked.
"Even if you were better, my son (Shedeur Sanders) is playing, regardless," Pavia said of Deion Sanders "He said we're looking for a backup, if you want to come here and be a backup, and I'm thinking in my head like, 'I ain't no fuc*$ng" backup. You know what I mean?'
"It was pretty cool. It was short, it was real; that's what I like."
Even in the episode's earlier moments, Pavia issued a verbal dagger to Lewan after Lewan slipped into a question that Pavia had jumped at the chance to play in college football's second-best conference.
"Do you know the three conferences of the NFL?," Pavia asked Lewan. "AFC, NFC and SEC."
Pavia also shared he previously was "pissed off" when then-New Mexico State and now Vanderbilt teammate and tight end Eli Stowers, a consensus NFL Draft prospect for the 2026 Draft, made more than double Pavia's NIL earnings at NMSU.
"I was pissed because Eli Stowers was getting $3/month," said Pavia, who revealed he had been paid $1,400/month. "(Vanderbilt) offered me $150,000 [to transfer over from NMSU and rejoin offensive coordinator Tim Beck, as well as Vanderbilt senior staffer Jerry Kill, the former NMSU head coach].
"That's how I took it last year (rather than renegotiating)."
But, Pavia said, the NFL will always pay more than college, and he outlined his pathway to a massive professional payday.
"We win the national championship and I win the Heisman, there's no reason why I don't get drafted first round," he said.
Vanderbilt, which finished 7-6 last season with its first-ever home win against a top-five team (Alabama) and also won its bowl game, opens the 2025 season at home against FCS program Charleston Southern before then traveling for back-to-back road games at Virginia Tech and South Carolina. The Commodores also face road trips to Alabama, Texas and Tennessee in addition to home games against LSU, Auburn and Missouri.