If you've missed the story of Wisconsin DB Xavier Lucas, it's been a controversial tale to follow. Essentially, Lucas wished to transfer, but the University of Wisconsin refused to comply by doing their part to get him officially entered into the portal.
According to the story by Ross Dellenger on Yahoo! Sports, the school refused to comply with Lucas's wishes due to a two-year revenue sharing agreement that Lucas signed the month before he requested a transfer. This was meant to be a binding agreement between Lucas and UW, and was a template issued by the Big 10 Conference.
Dellenger's article states that transgression of this agreement has the potential to "trigger litigation from Wisconsin onto Lucas and/or Miami", where he is transferring.
So how did Lucas get around the refusal of the Badgers brass to enter him into the portal? By simply unenrolling at Wisconsin and enrolling with the Hurricanes.
You'd think the NCAA may have something to say about that— surely, somewhere, there must be some rule about something.
Here is their statement:
The NCAA provided @YahooSports with a statement:
— Ross Dellenger (@RossDellenger) January 17, 2025
“NCAA rules do not prevent a student-athlete from unenrolling from an institution, enrolling at a new institution and competing immediately.” https://t.co/lponlrzvfF
Oh.
So this is all made up, then.
Apparently, the only thing preventing free transfer at any point is conference-specific rules (such as the SEC's ban on players transferring in-conference during the spring window) or the school's own willingness to enroll an individual at a certain point during the school year.
I'm beginning to wonder if schools could even pick up players midseason, just as NFL teams sign free agents. I am a Certified Rules Dummy, but I struggle to see the limiting principle that would prevent such a move.
This could be Pandora's Box completely open now. The NCAA has lost all ability to regulate any of this action, and it's hard to see how one lawsuit wouldn't take down even the strictures on the transfer portal timeframe that currently exist, given the NCAA's losing record in court.
It's their own fault for not getting ahead of things and instead legislating by acquiescence to whatever demands are made of the organization that have even a whiff of litigation behind them. Things are beginning to come to a head very quickly here.