Jaden Rashada sues Billy Napier, Florida booster over NIL deal - ESPN

Former University of Florida football recruit Jaden Rashada is suing coach Billy Napier, along with a big-time Gator booster and others, claiming they defrauded him out of millions of dollars by backing out of a promised $13.85 million agreement after the quarterback had turned down offers tied to other programs.

The lawsuit filed Tuesday includes an allegation that Rashada signed his national letter of intent to Florida on Dec. 21, 2022, less than an hour after Napier promised the player's father a $1 million «partial payment» that day upon signing. Rashada never received the $1 million, and the boosters never fulfilled the deal, the lawsuit states.

Rashada is the first known college athlete to sue his coach or a booster due to a dispute of a name, image and likeness (NIL) deal. His case, filed in the U.S. District Court in the Northern District of Florida, comes during a tumultuous time for the relatively new NIL market for college athletes. A mixture of state laws and evolving NCAA guidance dictates the roles that coaches, schools and donor groups known as collectives all play in facilitating the deals athletes can now strike to make money.

«Sadly, unethical and illegal tactics like this are more and more commonplace in the Wild West that is today's college football landscape,» the lawsuit states. «As the first scholar-athlete to take a stand against such egregious behavior by adults who should know better, Jaden seeks to hold Defendants accountable for their actions and to expose the unchecked abuse of power that they shamelessly wielded.»

«We do not comment on ongoing litigation, and neither the University Athletic Association nor the University are named in the complaint. The UAA will provide for Coach Napier's