{"id":694520,"date":"2026-01-21T19:54:16","date_gmt":"2026-01-21T19:54:16","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/694520\/"},"modified":"2026-01-21T19:54:16","modified_gmt":"2026-01-21T19:54:16","slug":"duke-to-enter-qb-darian-mensah-into-transfer-portal-as-legal-battle-continues-source","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/694520\/","title":{"rendered":"Duke to enter QB Darian Mensah into transfer portal as legal battle continues: Source"},"content":{"rendered":"

By Matt Baker, Sam Khan Jr. and Stewart Mandel<\/p>\n

Duke is expected to enter Darian Mensah into the transfer portal Wednesday, five days after the Blue Devils\u2019 starting quarterback notified the school of his intention to transfer<\/a>, a person briefed on the matter told The Athletic<\/a>.<\/p>\n

The move comes a day after Duke filed a lawsuit against Mensah<\/a> in an attempt to prevent him from entering the portal, but that request was denied, according to Darren Heitner, Mensah\u2019s attorney. The judge\u2019s order has not yet been released publicly.<\/p>\n

Mensah notified the school in writing of his intention to transfer Friday afternoon, hours before the sport\u2019s lone transfer window was set to close. NCAA bylaws state that, once an athlete informs the school of their intention to transfer and follows the necessary procedures, the school has two business days to enter the player\u2019s name into the portal. Because of Monday\u2019s Martin Luther King Jr. holiday, Duke had until Wednesday to enter Mensah\u2019s name.<\/p>\n

Mensah, a second-team All-ACC pick in 2025, is one of the top returning quarterbacks in college football going into the 2026 season and is the No. 1 player in The Athletic\u2019s transfer quarterback rankings<\/a>. Entry into the portal would allow schools to officially contact Mensah. Miami is considered the favorite to land him.<\/p>\n

Duke is also expected to host San Jose State transfer quarterback Walker Eget, who entered the portal on Jan. 9, on a visit. Eget was a two-year starter for the Spartans.<\/p>\n

In its lawsuit, Duke cited a two-year contract that Mensah signed in December 2024, which granted exclusive name, image and likeness rights to Duke through Dec. 31, 2026. The deal, which began as a third-party NIL agreement, transitioned to a revenue-sharing contract with Duke last summer under the terms of a multi-billion-dollar antitrust settlement known as the House settlement<\/a>. As of July 1, 2025, colleges were allowed to distribute up to $20.5 million in revenue sharing directly to athletes across all sports for the 2025-26 school year.<\/p>\n

The suit claims that if Mensah is allowed to break the contract by entering the transfer portal, enrolling at another school, playing football and\/or licensing his NIL rights to another school, it would cause Duke \u201cirreparable harm.\u201d Mensah\u2019s contract does not include an early termination, or \u201cbuyout\u201d clause.<\/p>\n

The complaint also argues there is a \u201cstrong public interest\u201d in this case and that allowing Mensah to breach the contract would \u201cundermine the integrity of these agreements.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cMr. Mensah has an existing contract with Duke, which the university intends to honor, and we expect he will do the same,\u201d a Duke athletics spokesperson said in a statement Wednesday. \u201cThe court-ordered temporary restraining order (TRO) issued yesterday ensures he does not violate his contract. The university is committed to supporting all our student-athletes, while expecting each of them to abide by their contractual obligations.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"By Matt Baker, Sam Khan Jr. and Stewart Mandel Duke is expected to enter Darian Mensah into the…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":694521,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[331,7643,7,2972,49,48,156],"class_list":{"0":"post-694520","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-ncaa-football","8":"tag-college-football","9":"tag-duke-blue-devils","10":"tag-football","11":"tag-miami-hurricanes","12":"tag-ncaa","13":"tag-ncaa-football","14":"tag-sports-business"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nfl\/115934846258328570","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/694520","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=694520"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/694520\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/694521"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=694520"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=694520"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=694520"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}