Cut the checks.
I’m not here to clutch pearls over tampering or the declaration of fair market value for NIL deals. While players transferring annually feels slimy to me, I understand it. I went to college for five years. Five years of eligibility for athletes? Sure. European imports all over college basketball? Bring ’em over. Agents working in the shadows? That’s nothing new. It’s all part of the game.
Where is the line?
I found it at the bottom of a legal document. That’s where the lawlessness has to end.
Princewill Umanmielen and Devin Harper inked revenue sharing agreements with Ole Miss in January. Then they entered the transfer portal. Both of those actions are completely within the rules. So is Ole Miss demanding the nearly $1 million owed to the school for bailing after the ink dried.
Those two players should pay up. If they can’t realistically pay it back, LSU should help. Everyone involved knew the terms of the agreement signed in early January. This was no mistake or misunderstanding.
At a certain point, a contract has to be enforceable.
Players are given the right to move school to school annually to create a bidding war and maximize earnings. Umanmielen and Harper exercised that right. They weren’t forced to sign that revenue sharing agreement in Oxford. Kiffin had been in Baton Rouge for over a month. Neither player was blindsided. They willingly broke a signed agreement and aren’t cooperating. If college athletes are going to make hundreds of thousands of dollars–which I’m fine with–then you have to handle things that come with it. That means taxes, agent fees and, yes, contractual obligations.
I’m not attorney. And I don’t think like one. It’s always possible that there’s some legal out that LSU is applying, but it would stun me if, first, Ole Miss’s legal team was that incompetent, and second, the Rebels were being this public about the pursuit of the money without an airtight case.
The Rebel administration is doing the right thing setting a precedent that you can certainly transfer out of Ole Miss. However, if you sign a revenue sharing contract, they’re going to enforce it.
Those who suggest that this public display is a recruiting disadvantage have lost me completely. What’s the negative recruiting supposed to sound like?
“Hey, don’t go to Ole Miss. If you sign a $400,000 rev share deal and then immediately transfer out, they’re going to ask for the $400,000 in that contract. Beware.”
Huh? That’s not Ole Miss acting out, it’s the United States legal system. You can negatively recruit a program for failed handling of a medical situation, a coach routinely pulling scholarships, a pitching coach abusing up arms or a coach with a questionable ethical background. Trying to suggest that a school is somehow corrupt for agreeing to share $400,000 of revenue for…playing football and then demanding the buyout payment come back the other way should the player…play football for a team on that year’s schedule? That’s a long way from corruption.
Some also argue Ole Miss should have pursued the cash in private. It sounds like that happened in January. LSU was contacted in March. It’s almost August. Tuesday’s release is certainly only one side of the story, but six months is a long time to work things out.
As petty as the public nature may seem, and I don’t fully disagree with that, I’d also argue agreeing to a deal and then hitting the road with your phone on silent is a long way from “stand up behavior.”
LSU has seemingly had no financial trouble buying out Ed Orgeron, hiring Brian Kelly, buying out Matt House and staff, bringing in Blake Baker then keeping him away from Tulane, inking the top portal class in the country, buying Kelly and Scott Woodward out, luring Kiffin in and then amassing one of the most expensive rosters in the country.
Some back of the napkin math puts that total significantly over $265 million. This is less than $1 million. Wire it by end of business on Wednesday and move on. It would hardly be the first time LSU has paid a premium for players or coaches over the last five years. If you don’t like the taste of that, moving forward don’t sign portal players who have signed rev share agreements with another school.
I’m well aware that payment is not coming. Because the players have been silent, likely by instruction, and LSU has said it’s not a party to the agreement, this is going to go to court. Ole Miss will win.
It’s just fuel on what is going to be a raging inferno the third week of September. Kiffin leaving a playoff team sparked it, and the incestuous back-and-forth that followed just added oxygen. None of that was out of line by my estimation. Contentious? Sure. Emotional? You bet. Poorly handled? In spots.
Blatant disregard for a simple contractual agreement goes beyond it all for reasons I can’t really conjure.
Send the money. Then spot the ball.
