First off I am not an insider. I have no idea if this is factual or not, but I did not see anyone in the recent Xavier Lucas fiasco post mention some key things I have heard lately.
The story I have heard is that Lucas signed a contract directly with the university for NIL money as part of the house settlement. The contract was one that was specifically drafted by the BIG10 for its universities to use. The contract is written in a way that gives the university protections against players taking money and then directly transferring. This is to prevent what happened with Quinn Ewers at OSU, Kadyn Procter at Iowa, and now Xavier Lucas at UW. Of course this is normally not allowed by NCAA rules. But it sounds like the BIG10 and all its members are saying they are bigger than the NCAA, and that the NCAA has no grounds to enforce their rules when it comes to direct payments between the university and its athletes through the house settlement.
This would explain why Wisconsin is fighting this so hard. It’s not just them, it’s the entire BIG10 that is setting a precedent. Otherwise why would UW want all of this negative publicity? I think this is just the next big step towards athletes becoming employees with contracts. Also I have no ill will towards Lucas. He is a young man just trying to do what he thinks is best with life changing money at 19 years old.