On Friday, the University of Wisconsin initiated a lawsuit, alleging that Miami’s football team violated the law by interfering with one of their players, marking a unique legal effort to uphold a financial agreement between a player and his school.
The lawsuit refers to the player as “Student Athlete A,” but information in the complaint matches up with the offseason transfer of freshman defensive back Xavier Lucas.
Lucas left Wisconsin and joined Miami in January after claiming that staff at Wisconsin would not put his name in the transfer portal last December.
In the complaint submitted on Friday, Wisconsin asserts that a member of Miami’s staff and a well-known alumnus met with Lucas and his family at a relative’s house in Florida. They allegedly offered him money to transfer soon after he signed a two-year contract last December.
The lawsuit contends that Miami engaged in tortious interference by intentionally encouraging Lucas to violate his agreement with Wisconsin.
“Although we are bringing this case reluctantly, we believe it is crucial to respect and enforce contractual obligations to keep competition fair,” said the university in a statement given to ESPN on Friday.
The complaint notes that Wisconsin filed the lawsuit hoping that “in this significant moment for college athletics, this case will promote integrity in the sport by holding programs legally responsible when they improperly disrupt contractual agreements.”
Representatives from the University of Miami did not immediately reply to requests for comment.
The ongoing case is set to test whether schools can use name, image, and likeness (NIL) agreements to prevent athletes from transferring, even though these players aren’t considered employees. Starting July 1, schools will begin paying their athletes directly through NIL deals.
The contracts between Wisconsin and its athletes grant the school nonexclusive rights to promote a player’s NIL. According to the lawsuit, part of this agreement prevents an athlete from committing to enroll or play sports at other schools.
The lawsuit claims that Wisconsin expected Lucas to “continue participating as a member of its football program” until the deal expired.
However, several contracts between Big Ten schools and their players that ESPN has looked at state clearly that athletes are not being paid to play football for the university.
Since the school is only compensating the player for using their NIL rights, it’s uncertain if a judge will find it fair to enforce a contract section that decides where the player goes to school.
On Friday, the Big Ten released a statement supporting Wisconsin’s decision to pursue legal action and stated that Miami’s alleged actions “do not align with a sustainable college sports framework.”
Darren Heitner, an attorney from Florida representing Xavier Lucas, told ESPN that Wisconsin has not filed any legal claims against Lucas and chose not to provide further comments.
