Tampering or Just A Transfer? Miami Hurricanes Face Legal Heat from Wisconsin Over DB Xavier Lucas

Don’t say you didn’t see this coming, Miami fans.

The wheels started turning back in January when Wisconsin cornerback Xavier Lucas requested, no begged, the Badgers to put his name into the transfer portal.

Lucas wanted to return home.

Wisconsin wanted him to stay put.

He wound up at Miami, Wisconsin threatened a lawsuit and …

Today that lawsuit has been filed. As Yahoo! sports senior college football reporter Ross Dellinger put it, “Wisconsin claims that Miami communicated with Lucas despite knowing he had entered a contract with the school, something it terms as `intentional’ interference that `was not justified or privileged’ and caused Lucas to `breach’ his contract.”

The full term for what Wisconsin is claiming is known in a court of law as “tortious interference.”

For those that aren’t sure what that term means, it’s definition is “Wisconsin is upset that one of its best players transferred to Miami.”

Okay, fine, the actual definition is, per the Legal Information Institute, “a defendant who wrongfully and intentionally interferes with the plaintiff’s contractual or business relationships.”

In this case the defendant is Miami, and plaintiff Wisconsin (Lucas is not named in the lawsuit), and per the lawsuit procured by On3 Wisconsin says Lucas “signed binding NIL contracts with UW-Madison and the collective.”

“At the conclusion of the 2024 season, UW-Madison and VC Connect offered, negotiated, and executed separate NIL contracts with (Lucas), underwhich he would receive one of the most lucrative NIL financial commitments of any UW-Madison football player,” the lawsuit says. “Miami knowingly induced (Lucas) to abandon his contractual commitments.”

As a reminder, when Wisconsin wouldn’t free Lucas from its football facilities, attorney Darren Heitner was hired and wound up advising Lucas to simply withdraw from the school and then enroll at Miami.

That worked.

Now the issue is whether Miami “tampered,” a vague term especially in the Wild Wild West atmosphere of today’s college game. but one that seems to indicate that Miami coaches or administrators would need to have directly made contact with Lucas.

If that contact only happened with one of Lucas’ friends or family members or his agent, is that tampering? If Miami instructed a third party to talk to Lucas or his family or agent, is that tampering? If a third party did that on their own and then came to Miami saying he wants to go there, is that tampering? If Mario Cristobal accidentally butt dialed Lucas, is that tampering (we recommend that as a defense, by the way, if there are any phone records)?

“Miami knowingly induced (Lucas) to abandon his contractual commitments … as a result of Miami’s actions (Lucas) abruptly left UW-Madison’s football program and enrolled at Miami, causing Plaintiffs to suffer substantial pecuniary and reputational harm,” the lawsuit states. “Miami’s actions are in direct contravention of not only the NCAA’s established anti-tampering rules – rules designed to maintain the integrity of the transfer process and ensure fair competition among member institutions – but also established contract and tort law.”

This is going to be blown out by national media as a major milestone moment in the NIL era, a test of how revenue sharing contracts can hold up and if there is some sort of real definition of “tampering” that can be punished in a court of law.

Could Mario’s phone records be subpoenaed?  Will Lucas’ phone be examined for text messages? Will the Madison police check its records for any private planes from Miami landing in the area in January?

Who knows.

And who cares.

We know everyone tampers, albeit usually in a way that isn’t going to land you in hot water (i.e. using third parties).

If the NCAA wants to take care of this, that seems the route to go.

Filing a lawsuit?

That’s over the top.

But it could cause some headaches at UM for a while.