Report: Wisconsin files tampering lawsuit against Miami over Xavier Lucas recruitment

The University of Wisconsin and its NIL collective have filed a tampering lawsuit against the University of Miami, Ross Dellenger of Yahoo Sports reported. It has to do with the Hurricanes allegedly poaching defensive back Xavier Lucas from the Badgers.

Dellenger called it a “landmark moment” for the sport: “The University of Wisconsin and its NIL collective filed a complaint in state circuit court on Friday against the University of Miami over tortious interference, according to documents obtained by Yahoo Sports,” he reported.

“In a first-of-its-kind and, perhaps, a precedent-setting move, Wisconsin is seeking unspecified damages, transparency and accountability from Miami for interfering with a binding revenue-share contract between Wisconsin and Xavier Lucas, a former defensive back who left the program in January to compete at Miami. It was a groundbreaking decision in which Lucas transferred without entering the portal (it had already closed) and after signing the contract with the Badgers.”

Back in January, Wisconsin released a statement on the matter, where they accused Miami of tampering, citing “credible information” and threatened to pursue legal action as a result of the situation. As you can see, they’ve taken that step.

“The lawsuit details what transpired in the winter among the three parties: Wisconsin, Miami and Lucas,” Dellenger added. “UW 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.”

Additionally, the suit alleged that “Miami interfered with UW-Madison’s relationship with Student-Athlete A (Lucas) by making impermissible contact with him and engaging in tampering,” per Dellenger.

It’s been reported that Wisconsin and Lucas agreed to a two-year revenue-share agreement that was set to begin July 1, Dellenger noted. That’s why Wisconsin refused to enter Lucas’ name into the portal when he requested a transfer, but he found a way around it, withdrawing from classes and enrolling academically at Miami in January

Whatever comes next is bound to set a precedent for college sports moving forward. Tampering has become a hot-button word since the advent of the transfer portal and NIL, but this is certainly a first-of-its-kind lawsuit.

Meanwhile, the Big Ten Conference has been supportive of Wisconsin from the beginning, and their behind the Badgers and their suit against Miami: “We stand by our position that respecting and enforcing contractual obligations is essential to maintaining a level playing field,” their statement read, via Dellenger

“In addition to our legal action, we will continue to be proactive to protect the interests of our student-athletes, our program and the broader collegiate athletics community.”

Alas, Lucas played high school football at Fort Lauderdale (Fla.) American Heritage, where he was a four-star prospect. He was the No. 331 overall player from the 2024 cycle, according to the On3 Industry Ranking, a weighted average that utilizes all four major recruiting media companies.

Xavier Lucas totaled 18 tackles as a freshman at Wisconsin this past season. The defensive back also added two tackles for loss, a sack and an interception. We’ll see what he has in store for the future, but he’s certainly become an interesting case at the moment in the sport of college football as a whole.

— On3’s Nick Schultz contributed to this article.

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