I think May possibly has an “IU clause” in his FAU contract, but I’d be surprised if UL or OSU would give him one.
And if May took either of those jobs and succeeded, I seriously doubt he would subsequently leave for IU then. At that point imo it would be too late, similarly to the situation with Brad.
It’s true that there’s no guarantee of success with hiring May, but that might be true of any candidate IU could hire next time around (likely 2025 at the earliest). It’s not clear to me that IU’s next search will have any “proven” or “sure-fire” candidates available to include in it.