Georgia takes Missouri DE Damon Wilson to court for $390,000 in damages after transfer

Georgia‘s athletic department is headed to court in a potentially precedent-setting legal effort to recoup approximately $390,000 in damages from former Bulldogs defensive end Damon Wilson, according to ESPN’s Dan Murphy. Wilson is Missouri‘s top pass rusher this season after transferring in from Georgia this past January.

Georgia filed a civil suit Nov. 19 requesting an Athens-Clarke County judge to compel Wilson into arbitration to settle a clause in an agreement he had with the Bulldogs’ team collective that effectively served as a buyout fee for exiting his NIL deal early when he transferred to Mizzou following the conclusion of last season. A copy of the lawsuit was obtained by On3‘s UGASports.com.

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Wilson played for the Bulldogs in 2023 and 2024, and signed a new NIL agreement with Georgia’s Classic City Collective two weeks prior to entering the NCAA Transfer Portal this past January. Through its collective, Georgia initially paid Wilson a total of $30,000 before his transfer, and now claims Wilson still owes the school a lump sum of $390,000 that was due within 30 days of his decision to leave the team, per ESPN.

The particular clause cited in Wilson’s deal with the Classic City Collective is for “liquidated damages” that many schools and collectives have inserted into their NIL agreements to both protect their investment in players and deter transfers, per ESPN. Georgia is believed to be among the first college athletic departments to publicly try to enforce the “liquidated damages” clause by filing suit against the player.

“When the University of Georgia Athletic Association enters binding agreements with student-athletes, we honor our commitments and expect student-athletes to do the same,” Georgia athletics spokesman Steven Drummond told ESPN in a statement Friday afternoon.

Wilson signed a term sheet with the Classic City Collective in early December 2024, shortly before the Bulldogs’ College Football Playoff quarterfinal loss to Notre Dame. Wilson’s 14-month contract with the collective was worth $500,000 to be distributed in monthly payments of $30,000 with two additional $40,000 bonus payments to be paid out in February and June 2025 once this past year’s transfer portal windows closed for remaining committed to Georgia, according to legal documents obtained by On3.

Wilson’s contract with Georgia’s collective reportedly dictated that should Wilson either withdraw from the team or enter the transfer portal during the term of the deal, he’d owe Classic City Collective a lump sum equal to the remaining money he would’ve received had he stayed with the Bulldogs through the length of the term sheet. The collective’s damages calculation does not include the two bonus payments that weren’t ultimately paid out. The Classic City Collective ultimately signed over the rights to those damages to Georgia’s athletic department on July 1 after most schools took over player payments following the June passing of the House Settlement.

Wilson leads Missouri with nine sacks this year and ranks third on the team with 9.5 tackles for loss and 20 total tackles in his first season in Columbia. Wilson had 3.5 total sacks in two seasons at Georgia.