Wisconsin sues Miami for tortious interference with Xavier Lucas

College football has made a mess for itself. And the cleanup process includes specific programs holding each other accountable for chaos when one of them crosses the line of civil liability.

That’s what the University of Wisconsin and its NIL collective are doing. Via Ross Dellenger of Yahoo Sports, Wisconsin has sued the University of Miami over the recruitment of defensive back Xavier Lucas.

Wisconsin claims that Miami intentionally interfered with its contractual relationship with Lucas by inducing him to break the contract and transfer.

It’s a fairly simple legal principle. If one business has a contract in place with an individual and another business persuades the person to breach the contract, that business has intentionally and tortiously interfered with the contractual relationship. It’s a legal theory that allows for the recovery of actual financial losses and, because it’s a “tort” claim, potential punitive damages.

The rise of NIL amid the collapse of the NCAA’s various rules that violated the antitrust laws has created a Wild West vibe in college football. That doesn’t mean schools can ignore the clear and settled legal rights of other schools. Lawsuits like this one should prompt all colleges to tread lightly when recruiting a player who has a binding contract with another school.

That said, the mere fact that one university would sue another for the financial harm arising from luring a player to leave one school for the other underscores the notion that these players are employees. The sooner they’re treated as employees and not student-athletes, the easier it will be for the NCAA and its members to begin to restore proper order to a system that has become chaotic due to the scuttling of corrupt rules that impermissibly prevented players from getting paid — by anyone.

As we’ve said more than once or twice, the colleges alone should be expected to fix college sports. It’s not for Congress or the president or anyone else to get out the mop. It’s for the schools to admit to the nature and extent of the mess. And it’s for the schools to devise real solutions for swabbing the deck.

Even if that means embracing a nationwide union, and the rights that such a union would secure for the players regarding compensation, practice intensity, and all other terms of what necessarily is an employment relationship.

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