More and more college football players should be thinking about majoring in pre-law.
Unless and until a global fix for the current reality of the sport is achieved, litigation will become more and more common.
Case in point — Duke has sued quarterback Darian Mensah to prevent him from entering the transfer portal. Via Mark Schlabach of ESPN.com, Duke sought a temporary restraining order aimed at blocking the transfer. The request was denied, which allows Mensah to proceed for now.
But the case will go forward, too. And he could eventually be blocked from leaving.
Mensah’s NIL contract requires all disputes to be settled through arbitration; Duke sought relief in court in an effort to keep Mensah in place pending the resolution of an arbitration claim that was filed on Monday.
Mensah’s NIL contract with Duke runs through the end of 2026. He said on December 19 that he’s staying in school, in lieu of entering the draft. Then, Mensah told Duke he plans to transfer.
As noted by Schlabach, Mensah has been linked to Miami, as the successor to Carson Beck. With 2025 Hurricanes backup Emory Williams telling ESPN.com on Tuesday that he plans to transfer, Miami needs a quarterback for 2026.
Now that lawsuits between players and their current schools have become the new abnormal for college football, there’s another bridge that inevitably will be crossed on a regular basis. Schools eventually will sue other schools for tortious interference with existing NIL contracts.
In this case, for example, if Miami has unofficially communicated to Mensah that he’ll get considerably more than the $4 million he’s due to make this year from Duke in an effort to induce Mensah to leave, Miami has potential liability to its conference partner.
Last year, Wisconsin sued Miami over the recruitment of Xavier Lucas. Wisconsin claimed that Miami intentionally interfered with its contractual relationship by inducing Lucas to break the deal and transfer.
It’s one thing to sue a school from a different conference. It’s another to sue an on-field competitor that is also a business partner.
For now, Duke has focused on Mensah. It makes plenty of legal sense (but perhaps questionable business sense) for Duke to unleash the legal equivalent of a Category 5 on the Hurricanes, if Duke believes that Mensah is entering the portal at the direct enticement of Miami.
