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Wisconsin Football Files Landmark Lawsuit Against Another Program

Originally posted on The Spun | By Tzvi Machlin | Last updated Jun 20, 2025 7:30 PM ET

It's a brave new world in college football as the NCAA has been effectively defanged and declawed in every meaningful way. Some college football programs are now taking advantage of the changes to see what they can achieve on their own in court.

According to Yahoo Sports' senior college football reporter Ross Dellenger, the University of Wisconsin and its NIL collective have filed a complaint against the University of Miami over alleged poaching of a college football player under contract.

The lawsuit alleges that Miami poached former defensive back Xavier Lucas by communicating with him while he was already under contract with Wisconsin and inducing him to come to Miami.

"The University of Wisconsin and its NIL collective filed a complaint in state circuit court on Friday against the University of Miami over alleged tortious interference, according to documents obtained by Yahoo Sports," Dellenger wrote.

"In a first-of-its-kind and, perhaps, a precedent-setting move, Wisconsin is seeking unspecified financial damages and a declaratory judgement deeming UM’s actions as wrongful for interfering with a binding revenue-share contract between UW 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."

MADISON, WI - SEPTEMBER 19: The Wisconsin Badgers marching band performs before the college football game against the Troy Trojans at Camp Randall Stadium on September 19, 2015 in Madison, Wisconsin. (Photo by Christian Petersen/Getty Images)

But Wisconsin isn't standing on their own in this suit. The entire Big Ten Conference has come out in support of the Badgers football program, releasing this statement:

“We stand by our position that respecting and enforcing contractual obligations is essential to maintaining a level playing field,” the B1G statement said. “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.”

This landmark lawsuit could very well set the precedent for how schools enforce tampering between each other now that the NCAA has effectively lost the ability to do so through the House settlement's revenue-sharing agreement.

If you thought the changes to the rules were wild when NIL was first introduced, we could be seeing an almost monthly change to the rules now that the courts are getting involved.

This article first appeared on The Spun and was syndicated with permission.

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