Dakoda Fields

Must be something they feel confident in and worth it. Not a great headline for future recruiting to be seen suing a former recruit.

Contractual arrangements go both ways, and it sounds like he hasn't been living up to his side of things since at least November 5. Glad Oregon is establishing that players have to treat it like a business and you can't just ignore money you owe.

On the other hand it might influence ( if Oregon wins) less tampering or recruits leaving,

gfmidway said:

Must be something they feel confident in and worth it. Not a great headline for future recruiting to be seen suing a former recruit.

And if the recruit didn't live up to the agreement? I am sure U of O wouldn't of done this procedure if they didn't think they could win.

gfmidway said:

Must be something they feel confident in and worth it. Not a great headline for future recruiting to be seen suing a former recruit.

Article makes it seem pretty clear cut. He didn't pay money he contractually agreed to pay as part of a court settlement. I agree it's a risky move any time you do it, but this one seems rather easy. And I had forgotten he basically ghosted the team on the way out which likely played a role in the university being more willing to fight for this.

1) Sucks to see this headline over a relatively small amount of money 2) Kid seems like a tool. Bails on the team by just no-showing and then refuses to pay on a very clear deadline from what seems to be a very clear contract. Doesn't seem like this is much of a legitimate dispute, just Oregon being forced to go to court because of his petulance.

Not sure why anyone is saying this looks bad for Oregon. It seems pretty cut and dry that Fields is in the wrong. He just completely bailed out on the team.

Can't back out of a contract and keep all of the money you were paid to fulfill the contract. Pretty simple. They also offered to settle for less if he paid a portion back by April 20th and he missed the date. Either he was just being lazy, ornery, or spent all of the money already.

tdoger said:

Can't back out of a contract and keep all of the money you were paid to fulfill the contract. Pretty simple. They also offered to settle for less if he paid a portion back by April 20th and he missed the date. Either he was just being lazy, ornery, or spent all of the money already.

The part of being offered to pay less is hilarious. Pretty ridiculous story really. He ghosts the team, transfers, doesn't fulfill a contract, is offered an easy out, and still doesn't bother. Absurd behavior.

This is gonna become pretty commonplace until these kids get actual agents

BlountsRightHook said:

This is gonna become pretty commonplace until these kids get actual agents

His listed agent in the story seems legit, registered with the NFLPA and everything.

A lot of 18-22 year old kids are going to start learning about contract law in the next handful of years and learn some VERY hard lessons.

LikeLamike said:

Not sure why anyone is saying this looks bad for Oregon. It seems pretty cut and dry that Fields is in the wrong. He just completely bailed out on the team.

Fields must be a nihilist.

DaneQBDuck said:

And if the recruit didn't live up to the agreement? I am sure U of O wouldn't of done this procedure if they didn't think they could win.

Not about winning or losing, it's about the negative recruiting other schools will do off of this. Oregon will hopefully have a good response if and when it gets brought up.

Doyle Hargraves said:

Fields must be a nihilist.

Say what you want about the tenets of national socialism dude, at least it's an ethos

gfmidway said:

Not about winning or losing, it's about the negative recruiting other schools will do off of this. Oregon will hopefully have a good response if and when it gets brought up.

He terminated a mutually agreed upon contract. We mutually agreed to a $40k settlement and reduced it to $30k if he paid within ~2 months of the settlement. He didn’t hold up his side of the agreement. Seems pretty cut at dry. Had Oregon been holding out on $40k they owed him, I’m sure he would have sued too. Can’t have your cake and eat it too. Gonna go out on a limb and say he has the money given his lofty recruiting status and transferring from one playoff team to another playoff caliber team in the SEC.

Maybe the players should be treated in a manner similar to coaches and “buyouts” a legal agreement in the NIL contract. Then when a player transfers, the receiving school can be on the hook for the buyout. This would alleviate any negative recruitment repercussions. It just struck me how “professional” college football is now. It’s literally “professional football” just on a smaller scale.

What a moron. “While the two parties allegedly agreed to discount that payment by $10,000 if Fields made the payment by April 20, Oregon claims Fields didn’t submit it by the agreed-upon date.” Oregon gave him a 75% discount of the total monies owed (an easy way to leave fairly) and he said "nah I'm good." EDIT: Original reduction was to $29,882, a 25% discount.

Having covered this one very closely I knew it was a messy situation behind the scenes. However, this is the first I'm hearing of owed funds. This isn't a rare thing in the NIL era. I'm not going to throw any shade at Fields or his family because I know them well and they are good people. He had to make the decision he felt was best for him and his family. But clearly Oregon feels they are still owed something and have some ground to stand on if they are seeking legal action.

Oregon gave him multiple chances and he still refused... so silly

BlountsRightHook said:

This is gonna become pretty commonplace until these kids get actual agents

He’s switched agents since then but I know when he was still here at Oregon his agent was Jabbar’s relative that also repped others in the CB room including Ify.

DaneQBDuck said:

And if the recruit didn't live up to the agreement? I am sure U of O wouldn't of done this procedure if they didn't think they could win.

Like most of these actions, this will be settled. The kid will pay more in legal fees than he will keep if he wins. And, for this type of action, his attorney fees will almost assuredly be up front. He's trying to keep money, not win money.

wouldn't be surprised if the team he went to didn't agree to pay any contracted amount to Oregon as part of his agreement with the new team.

fairweatherfowl said:

Like most of these actions, this will be settled. The kid will pay more in legal fees than he will keep if he wins. And, for this type of action, his attorney fees will almost assuredly be up front. He's trying to keep money, not win money.

Agree, or he spent the money.