Former quarterback signee Jaden Rashada's fraud lawsuit against Florida head coach Billy Napier may proceed, a federal judge ruled on Tuesday. The decision comes after Napier, along with two co-defendants, filed motions to dismiss the Name, Image and Likeness (NIL)-based case in July.
"(It) doesn't take a rocket scientist to understand how a purportedly fraudulent NIL deal initially valued north of $13 million could induce a teenager to choose a university he otherwise would not have," the U.S. District Court's Northern District of Florida's Judge M. Casey Rodgers wrote.
Tuesday's decision allowed the collegiate junior, who remains in the transfer portal after entering in January, to move forward with discovery on his fraud and misrepresentation claims, while dismissing three of Rashada's other counts: two related to contract interference and one for civil conspiracy.
Prominent Florida donor Hugh Hathcock, former Florida NIL director Marcus Castro-Walker, Hathcock's car company, Velocity Automotive Solutions, LLC and Napier will now prepare for discovery and possibly trial.
Napier's and Hathcock's attorneys declined to comment on the pending litigation, but Rashada's attorney, Rusty Hardin, said in a statement on Wednesday afternoon, "We appreciate the thorough and thoughtful opinion … It will serve as a North Star for other athletes seeking justice after being done wrong on the NIL front by coaches and boosters. We look forward to discovery fully exposing the defendants' conduct for all to see."
Florida finds itself amid a first-of-its-type NIL case stemming from a $13.85 million deal that fell through. The lawsuit alleges that in the summer of 2022, Rashada, a top-rated quarterback recruit in the class of 2023, flipped his commitment from Miami to Florida. He was offered $9.5 million by the Hurricanes before being enticed by Napier and Florida donors to travel upstate for more money, according to Rashada.
But that didn't last for long.
The complaint goes on to claim that as time passed, it became clear the multi-million-dollar commitment deal wasn't going to be paid out by Hathcock's company and the donor's NIL collective. Rashada was then granted his release from Florida and signed with Arizona State.
Now, Rashada, Napier and Co. advance towards an undetermined court date that could illuminate the evolving world of college athletics.
"The ruling yesterday will result in a discovery process that, at a minimum, is going to unearth some information that probably is embarrassing to people with the university," Michael LeRoy, a professor of labor and employee relations at the University of Illinois College of Law, said.
UF senior legal skills professor William Hamilton provided a tamer estimation, explaining that the judge's decision on Tuesday only allowed parties to "begin gathering evidence." That doesn't necessarily mean there will be a court date, and there definitely isn't a set ruling.
Napier and the other defendants have consistently maintained that there was no wrongdoing since Rashada filed the lawsuit nearly a year ago, making the discovery process a "credibility test," according to LeRoy.
And those test results could send ripples through college athletics.
"The fact pattern is unprecedented," said LeRoy,. "It could give us a first-time look at the machinations around recruiting and undermining recruiting."
LeRoy went on to detail that soon there could be more lawsuits similar to Rashada's that fall into the categories of "tampering or broken promises about contracts." With college donors and sponsors regularly dishing out million-dollar contracts to athletes, that doesn't come as a surprise.
However, LeRoy's prediction might be impacted by the results of other litigation. Robert Boland, a Seton Hall assistant professor of law who focuses on sports law and NIL, explained that the impending $2.8 billion federal class-action antitrust lawsuit filed by athletes against the NCAA may remove some of the stakes in Rashada's case.
When the "House" settlement concludes, a decades-long prohibition will end and schools will be allowed to spread $20.5 million per year among their athletes immediately.
"The one thing that's going to change, assuming the House settlement is ultimately approved this summer, is that, at some point, this issue is kind of going to become moot," Boland said.
What will remain pertinent about Rashada's case will be its implications on sovereign immunity, which Rodgers referred to as "an 800-pound gorilla lurking in this case."
By definition, sovereign immunity protects state entities and individuals from lawsuits to which they have not consented. Specific to Rashada's case, it could prevent Napier, the highest-paid Florida state employee, from accepting any wrongdoing, no matter the evidence gathered.
"That's extraordinary," LeRoy said. "It shields people from liability, and the only justification for it is that coaches are above and beyond the law."
For now, Rashada remains drifting in the balance. He is without a court date and a school, after departing Georgia for the transfer portal this winter. When he finds his next team, it'll be his fifth commitment in just over two years.
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