From the article:
Former Wisconsin defensive back Xavier Lucas, who UW refused to enter into the portal after he requested a transfer, is leaving the school for Miami, his attorney Darren Heitner told Yahoo Sports on Wednesday — a groundbreaking move that may have significant ramifications.
The situation is poised to set precedent, both in the ability for schools to enforce revenue-sharing agreements that are contingent on the House settlement's passage and, perhaps more importantly, for players to transfer at any time, even outside the portal windows or without entering the portal at all.
Lucas, a freshman this past season, withdrew from classes at Wisconsin and enrolled academically at Miami. By not formally signing with Miami, he presumably skirts any NCAA transfer rules. He enrolled for the fall 2025 semester but is expected to be reclassified to spring 2025,
The move, for now, avoids a legal filing. Heitner had planned to file suit against the NCAA and Wisconsin over antitrust claims related to the situation, accusing Wisconsin of blatantly violating NCAA rules by not inserting Lucas' name into the portal as he requested and questioning the legality of the NCAA's transfer portal.
Wisconsin officials have remained quiet on the situation. However, the school is declining to enter Lucas into the portal as he signed a two-year revenue-share agreement last month before requesting a transfer.
Again, the NCAA is allowing the lawyers to determine how the sport is governed. This sport is so fucked.
https://sports.yahoo.com/former-wisconsin-db-xavier-lucas-leaving-school...
Comments
Contract?
However, the school is declining to enter Lucas into the portal as he signed a two-year revenue-share agreement last month before requesting a transfer.
Wisconsin could have also just let the kid go into the portal, and no lawyers.
I'm still absorbing/reading/learning about this specific situation, and I'm sure more details will come.
Edit to add: Typically, when people say 'the sport is ruined' or 'college football is dead' they are trying to say that the naked professionalization of the sport has destroyed the appeal (either directly or indirectly). No one ever blames the schools for this stuff though...
The interest part is the word "Contract" that he signed.
I feel like this is an important part of the story here.
Money changes everything.
If there were no money involved on either end (or, more likely, both ends) it seems that there wouldn't have been any problems with allowing the student to use the portal, so you wonder about the rest of the story.
cant wait to hear about how he's entitlement is ruining the sport because this kid decided to forego two years of NIL to be closer to his sick dad
He's not forgoing any NIL. He's just getting it from Miami instead of Wisconsin.
Sometimes kids have a good personal reason to skirt the rules. Sometimes kids just WANT to skirt the rules, and find a personal reason to justify it.
I have no idea which this is, but it seems a bit odd that Wisconsin wouldn't give the student athlete the benefit of the doubt if this were the case, so there may be a good reason for their decision that's not apparent on what has been presented here.
He can't get it from Miami if there is a binding agreement granting his NIL rights to Wisconsin
Hence, the lawsuit and the lawyers.
He's doing what he wants, and letting the lawyers sort it out, I guess.
What lawsuit?
The one that will be threatened if their press releases and social media campaign don't work.
NCAA/schools should base eligibility for competition on how long a person has been a student in good academic standing at the institution they compete for, or to have completed an undergraduate degree. Nothing else. Make it a semester; make it a year; make it a certain number of credits; whatever. As academic institutions, they have total latitude to do that. Don't worry about NIL's or NLI's or portals or even scholarship limits. Then just focus on roster sizes and setting rosters for each sport for each season. If a non-graduate can't be immediately eligible, it will quickly become self governing; and it will keep the institutions from losing in court. Somewhere along the way they forgot why they are 501(c)(3)'s.
Oh, and this one is for DC; if you've completed a certain number of college credits, you can't play anymore.
Then schools will just lower the admissions standards for athletes, make up fake courses, etc. we've seen this movie before.
yet, that seems to be the movie everyone wants to see
I see both sides here.
On one hand, let the kid go home to his dad. On the other, if he did sign a 2 year NIL deal, there has to be a penalty for breach of contract, otherwise you're never going to be able to enforce anything.
The whole thing sucks, I hate the NCAA for being too feckless to lift a finger anymore to try and reign this under control, and I hate every agent and person influencing these kids to spiral the entire sport into the quagmire it now is in. There probably is no saving it anymore, and it's only a matter of time before the whole house of cards collapses. It's like the NBA which shined exceedingly bright for about 10 years but is now seeing absolutely terrible viewership numbers across the board leaving power brokers to scramble to figure out what is going on, but it's hard to pinpoint any single thing because so much of it is fundamentally broken.
Agreed.
The NCAA allowed this to degrade into the wild wild west, so I'm not surprised when there is some economic and personal carnage.
Contrarian opinion here, but I feel like criticizing the NCAA is like yelling at the sky because it's raining. On an instinctual level it might make sense and feel right, but it's pointless and misguided.
The NCAA spent decades trying to enforce the rules that the member schools asked it to enforce, and it was shit on again and again for doing literally what it was created to do. Then federal- and state-level courts started ruling that they CAN'T legally enforce those rules. Now the NCAA is simultaneously criticized for being an overbearing tyrant that suffocates college sports with stupid rules, and also a feckless organization that promotes a wild west culture.
The reality is that the NCAA is a strawman at this point. It basically doesn't exist anymore.
Herein lies the issue: The NCAA is nothing more than its member institutions. But the member institutions don't want to give power to anyone other than themselves.
If schools actually wanted centralized authority, they would've given the NCAA the authority to sell broadcast rights, distribute revenue, enforce rules, etc.
But the schools didn't want to do that. They wanted to have their cake and eat it too.
At this point? It's always been this way. The only difference is that the public used to believe in the ncaa's mission. That is no longer the case. Without the bully pulpit, the NCAA has no authority. That's what has changed. The ncaa has always been a straw man. The difference is now everyone knows it's a scarecrow, not an actual monster.
Yea, the NCAA didn't allow this to happen. They were overtaken by a coup without any martial law or other regime taking over.
It is really on Congress or the will of the institutions and players. Congress could give NCAA authority within constitutional boundaries. Or a collective bargaining agreement could be made between the institutions and players.
Eventually, I imagine Congress and President will do something. However, NCAA does not seem like a priority at the moment with the focus on Greenland. But it would be cool to see Greenland Univ. in the CFB playoffs!!! So, maybe they can do both at the same time.
It drives me crazy when players announce their commitment to "Greenland University."
It's the University of Greenland! Why can't they get it right?
Sure, but Greenland Tech is much better.
If I had my way, it would totally be GPI & SU.
Shortened to GPU and man do they ever have the most expensive facilities out there
Noticed that this paid player (student-athlete is a joke) has an attorney. Begs the question, how much of this NIL money is being sucked up by the attorneys and supposed agents?
Just curious if anybody knows. Haven't really heard this mentioned anywhere.
This particular Attorney, Heitner is an example of where CFB is heading.
He plays both sides of the coin...he represents athletes as an "NIL Attorney" but also (at least in the past) was involved in the NIL Collective @ UF. He also is faculty at Miami's Law School so he's teaching the next generation how to follow in his footprint.
So in this case, presumptively some portion the Attorney fees he collects in suing Wisconsin will be used to help fund Florida (and possibly Miami) Programs. Seems tremendously logical.
This is what the College Football is now...a shitshow run amok with an NIL system that clearly is not economically viable in the long -term--being exploited mostly by people who have no role with the actual product on the field.
The winners here are going to be lawyers and television executives. Not the athletes. And certainly not the fans.
Hope all the "these poor athletes," crowd is happy about where we are.
I hope the "these poor athletes" crowd is happy, too. Well maybe not. Pretty sure everyone else is mostly unhappy. Other than watching VT, being an alumnus, is all I watch anymore. Have no interest in the rest of college sports anymore. All professional players. Probably stupid thinking, because I know the VT 'athletes' are just paid players too and most don't give a shit about the school, just how big is their bag of $$$$$.
Quit watching the professional leagues years ago when they got politicalized.
Sad state of affairs.
Darren is an interesting guy. Sharp, but not as sharp as he thinks he is. Quick to forget those who've helped him along the way as well. One of those guys who will "big dog" you and cut a conservation off midstream as soon as someone "more important" walks by. I'm sure you all know the type.
I watched Drew Rosenhaus on the Pat McAfee show before the last round of the playoffs talking about why his clients were going to be playing in those games, referencing collegiate players, and that's all I needed to see to understand that college sports are fundamentally broken and are never coming back.
Yep. I don't mind the kids making money, but that was a cringeworthy segment
A little semantic here, but lawyers have always determined how anything is governed. I'm sure NCAA rules are written by lawyers, and any prior court wins by NCAA were based on lawyer arguments and analysis, adjudicated by lawyers. I guess the OP point is that lawyers for the players are now determining how the NCAA is governed, using the U.S. corporate laws of around free enterprise to knife their way through the NCAA. Which is an issue that does need resolve.