

Former Florida quarterback signee Jaden Rashada can proceed with his lawsuit against Gators football coach Billy Napier over a $13.85 million name, image and likeness deal gone wrong, a federal judge ruled Tuesday.
The limited 40-page order in the U.S. District Court’s Northern District of Florida gave victories to both sides. But it means that the former blue-chip recruit did enough to clear the first legal hurdle in parts of his suit against Napier, a former Gators staffer and a Florida booster.
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“(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,” Judge M. Casey Rodgers wrote.
The root of the case dates back to the summer of 2022, when Rashada was a top-100 national recruit from California. He initially committed to Miami after receiving a $9.5 million NIL offer, according to his complaint. Florida continued to recruit him, and a four-year, $13.85 million deal led him to flip to the Gators.
After payment deadlines passed, Rashada concluded that Napier and the other defendants, former Florida staffer Marcus Castro-Walker and donor Hugh Hathcock, did not plan to honor their agreements. Rashada was granted his release from Florida and transferred to Arizona State and later Georgia. He entered the portal again in January and remains unsigned.
In May, Rashada sued Napier, Castro-Walker, Hathcock and Hathcock’s car company.
The judge allowed three fraud-related accounts and another count of conspiracy to commit fraud to proceed.
Rodgers wrote that the allegations “advance a compelling narrative that the Defendants were all marching to the beat of the same drum throughout Rashada’s failed recruitment to UF, each taking interwoven and often overlapping steps designed to lure Rashada away from Miami all while knowing they would never make good on the NIL promises made and leading Rashada on until his other NIL offers dried up.”
Rodgers dismissed three of Rashada’s other counts Tuesday, almost four months after a hearing. Two of the dismissed counts related to contract interference and whether Napier and anyone else could be held accountable for Rashada canceling his own contract with Miami. She also dismissed a separate civil conspiracy count.
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The judge’s order only allows the case to proceed to discovery. Rodgers wrote that Rashada will still “have to prove his claims” later.
Rodgers also did not confront what she called “an 800-pound gorilla lurking in this case.” That would be the issue of sovereign immunity, which generally shields state entities (like the University of Florida) and their employees (like football coaches) from lawsuits.
“Those arguments will have to wait for another day,” Rodgers wrote.
The next court date has not been set.
(Photo: James Gilbert / Getty Images)
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