Q: Can students sue their university if their football team doesn't do well?
A: Basically, you can sue anyone for anything. I think you want to know if such a lawsuit would have merit and potentially be successful. Of course the answer is: "No". The two main components of a civil lawsuit are "liability" and "damages". A Plaintiff must initially prove that the Defendant violated the law in some way. I suspect you are a UM fan, and I can understand why you are asking this question. But no matter how many times they lose to inferior competition - no laws have been violated. Poor performance, while commonplace at UM, is not against the law. Moreover, even if it was unlawful, you would still have to prove that you were damaged. The most common damages are monetary and I don't see a way that you would have actually lost money because of a bad football team. Possibly you are emotionally distressed but such emotional damages are rarely recoverable where there has not been intentional, wrongful conduct.
Trent Harris agrees with this answer
A: People can sue for many different reasons. But many lawsuits are also dismissed. Lawsuits are typically based on seeking some form of damage or remedy, whether for breach of contract, physical damages, injunction relief, etc. The law doesn’t provide a remedy for how a sports team performs.
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