Duke Sues Mensah

Durham county judicial system seems to have strong ties to Duke’s law school. This could be fun.

I wonder if they go after Raiola or whatever his name is if Mensah falls through.

This is how miami built their team.

finisher1225 said:

Durham county judicial system seems to have strong ties to Duke’s law school. This could be fun.

Agreed, and Duke has a pretty colorable irreparable harm argument.

Master of Muppets said:

I wonder if they go after Raiola or whatever his name is if Mensah falls through.

Ariola at miami is kismet. They deserve each other. He also makes the most sense being a back up currently. They must really not like him though if they were willing to spend a buyout to get Mensah instead of talking to him first. Or maybe they have. We'll see.

Go get it Duke!!!

A pretty good review of Duke's filing: https://www.sportico.com/law/analysis/2026/duke-lawsuit-darian-mensah-nil-deal-transfer-portal-1234881805/

Ass they should. Duke is not an institution to be messed with. They’ve got a large base of attorneys in the northeast that are willing to throw the hammer down. This is a fight that Miami may want to walk away from.

FSU athletics needs to have legal counsel ready at the whim for this kind of stuff like Duke did. I saw the first judge draw recused himself due to being a Duke season ticket holder lol

BooneBraves said:

In State Court in North Carolina. If they can get an injunction from a friendly Judge, they may thwart Miami. I’d say the odds are better than not.

This is fantastic news for us and hopefully more bad news for the most obnoxious fan base in college sports better known as Scum.

It will be very interesting to see how this plays out. I suspect Mensah's 'strategy' will be to file motions intended to delay an injunction, eg trying to force drawn out arbitration or change of venue. Basically if Mensah can get the courts to punt this down the road 2-3 weeks, he can enroll at scum and there's not a lot that could can be done to undo it. And a court likely has no standing to rule him ineligible to play an an NCAA field for a certain team. I'm sure both schools have lawyers who've spent the past 7 days digging into this, scum are dirtbags but not total idiots, they surely reviewed his Duke agreements to get comfortable with whatever legal routes they thought Duke was likely to take.

I find it ironic that Mensah wants to claim that he is basically an "employee" of Duke, when the Congress has said repeatedly that the players are not employees and the Congress does not want them classified as such. And the IRS still will not rule that the free tuition is taxable because the players are not employees. (The tuition would be clearly taxable if the players were employees and the tuition was given in "exchange for services".)

He can just unenroll at Duke, that’s the wild part. Duke owns his NIL rights but not his playing rights.

Should also sue Miami for tampering.

OrlanNOLE said:

He can just unenroll at Duke, that’s the wild part. Duke owns his NIL rights but not his playing rights.

See my comment above....that's all related to Duke's assertion that Mensah is not an employee.

UM will bloster the big’s desire and ammo to get an enforceable cap in plsce the conference should step on as well given this is intraconference

I hadn't read the filing yet, but I'll take a look when I have more time as I'm curious about the NIL contract details about his exclusive rights.

I think I saw where someone posted that the Judge said that Duke couldn't prohibit him from entering the portal and couldn't stop him from enrolling at Miami. I guess the question remains can Miami then pay him?

Venetian Salami said:

A pretty good review of Duke's filing: https://www.sportico.com/law/analysis/2026/duke-lawsuit-darian-mensah-nil-deal-transfer-portal-1234881805/

Thanks for the article! And Yes!!… this is what I suspected. The last paragraph would create a precedent that a player is committing his NIL to another school when he signs with them. It’s not just that he signs as a student/player… this injunction and suit is invoking NIL contract law. Quote: “Duke University on Tuesday sued quarterback Darian Mensah—who, last Friday, entered the transfer portal—claiming he breached a multiyear NILcontract that ends on Dec. 31, 2026. The school seeks an injunction and restraining order in Durham County (N.C.) Superior Court to effectively block Mensah from leaving the Blue Devils and joining another program.” “As described by Duke, the contract grants the school “exclusive rights” to Mensah’s NIL “with respect to higher education and football.” “… but the school insists that an emergency restraining order is needed to prevent Mensah from “ignoring his contractual obligations” to Duke and “transferring to another school to compete in football and license his NIL rights to that school.”

damaged from nonperformance have nothing to do with an exclusivity agreement besides, mot possible to play for 2 teams et same time so not a necessary I ma curious if there is a treble damages trigger

One of Duke's main complaints is very last minute timing where Duke can't address the loss....

northvanole said:

I find it ironic that Mensah wants to claim that he is basically an "employee" of Duke, when the Congress has said repeatedly that the players are not employees and the Congress does not want them classified as such. And the IRS still will not rule that the free tuition is taxable because the players are not employees. (The tuition would be clearly taxable if the players were employees and the tuition was given in "exchange for services".)

Did anyone ever find out about the rumor Alford docked players NIL for tuition, books, etc ?

MXHUDSO said:

One of Duke's main complaints is very last minute timing where Duke can't address the loss....

That is their best argument, and it is plausibly obvious.

If Duke is successful, the locker room atmosphere will be… interesting.