I'm up in Badger territory... the school is being extremely quiet. Even their 247 guys aren't reporting anything on the record.
What I can tell you is true, Wisconsin (the university/collective) and WI (the culture) are not built for this NIL world. The people with real money have no idea what happens behind the scenes to make the business of college football happen. This deeply offended some important people who thought they had a deal. I have seen or heard nothing credible about what the terms of the deal were and how they were violated. The blame has fallen on Miami tampering (surprise!).
The message board geniuses think they have Miami in a bind with tampering. XL needs the Miami money to repay Wisconsin, but Miami can't pay him until he is in the portal and we aren't letting him in the portal. This is obviously stupid because an agent could front the money short term until the new deal is complete.
It is starting to dawn on Badger fans that however this ends, XL is never playing another down in Madison. They are losing the PR battle and this could burn some recruiting bridges. The mood is shifting to this needs to end... maybe we can release him to anyone not named Miami so they don't get away with this *shakes fist*.
Of course they blame Miami... but this was always bound to happen because they don't actually understand or have the stomach to play the game they are playing.
Nearly all of this matches what I expected.
A couple of minor points of disagreement.
First, I am not so sure Xavier Lucas needs Miami money or agent money to repay Wisconsin. As I have said all along, IS THERE A REPAYMENT SCHEDULE? If not, then no money needs to be repaid, no matter how butthurt anyone in Wisconsin is.
Second, where is the tampering? Xavier is from South Florida, Miami recruited him, he knows plenty of former coaches and former teammates with whom he can have LEGITIMATE back-channel conversations. Wisconsin has lost, what, 20 players to the Portal and multiple guys have made veiled comments about Fickell. Why does ANY Wisconsin fan think that it would be necessary to "tamper" with Xavier Lucas in order to "induce" him to leave Wisconsin?
Finally, I don't think that any school can do "conditional" releases anymore. I don't even think you need a release. I don't care about the 39 "other offers", he is from South Florida and it's pretty clear where he wants to go.
In addition to not understanding NIL, I also think that most Wisconsin fans don't understand contracts, NCAA rules, and logic.
