Chapter 1: What led Darian Mensah to enter the transfer portal at the last minute?
Hey there, Duke fans. Welcome to DBR Bites, episode number 136. As I mentioned, Donald here, Scott still here. We're doing this just right after episode 788, which is the recap of the Stanford game. So if you're listening to this and you did not catch the Stanford preview, you can go listen to that either before you listen to this or after. It's your world. You do what you need to do.
But we wanted to get on here again and kind of separate this discussion from that of the basketball. And, of course, we're talking about Derry Mensah on Friday night announcing that after announcing that he was coming back to Duke for another year, announcing very, very late at the 11th hour, just hours before the transfer portal window closed, that he was entering the transfer portal.
And there's a lot of talk about him going to the university of Miami and we'll get into some of that speculation and some of the fallout that's going to happen as a result of that. I obviously put out my own little mini bites at the time. I said, I wanted to continue to gather my thoughts and also have an opportunity for Scott to do this. Jason is still on his way back from Africa.
So I'm sure on a future episode, Jason will have his thoughts on the dairy and mince to transfer and all that has fallen out from it. But yeah,
Chapter 2: How do fans feel about Mensah's sudden departure from Duke?
Scott, I bring you in because I want to start with this. Derry Mensah, of course, I think a lot of people feel burned, and rightfully so, by the fact that just, what, 17 days ago, he had this great video announcement that he was running it back. And he was like, hey, I'm coming back. We're going to try and go for more heights. You know, we obviously want to defend our ACC championship.
We want to go for the college football playoff and contend for a national championship. And he felt that he could do that here at Duke. And then with just mere hours before the transfer portal window closed, he kind of, with a very small statement, said, an AI statement, as some people kind of pointed out, I'm forever grateful for Duke, but I'm entering the transfer portal.
So give me your thoughts, at least overall, as we start, on Darian Mensah deciding at the 11th hour to kind of change his mind and flip on Duke and go into the portal.
So my philosophy on the transfer portal in general and sort of how you live as a college sports fan in this era is that I don't begrudge anyone transferring because money is money and this is a job, right? The college athletes at this point at this level are using this as their means of income. Arguably, for some of them, this is their prime earning years of their lives.
I do not begrudge any player leaving college. in transferring to maximize their income streams. Just like if you sitting at home got offered a job for twice as much money, you get to go live in Miami, they're gonna cover your contract, they're gonna cover your moving expenses, blah, blah, blah.
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Chapter 3: What are the implications of Mensah's decision for Duke's football program?
Very few of us would say, I'm not gonna consider that. I think that's the perspective that you have to have in general. That said, Also in the adult world, the working world, it's never a good idea to burn your bridges, right?
If you are leaving your position for a new opportunity, at some point in your life, I don't know, you might need a reference letter from someone who you worked for, you know, five, 10 years ago. You might need to collaborate with your old company on a project, something like this.
That's where I get a little bit frustrated by the Daring Mensah situation in particular, because he chose to do this in such a way to not just burn his bridges, but arguably, and we'll talk a bit about the fallout, sort of burn the entire program on his way out with some of the fallout and the secondary players and whatnot who are leaving. That's the problem here.
If Darian Mensah said, if Darian Mensah never made his I'm coming back to Duke announcement and decided to enter the portal, that sucks. He gave us a great year. It hurts our team. But that's the cost of doing business in the modern NCAA. But to say you're coming back to make such a big deal about that, to give the Duke program weeks to build their roster around you.
And then to pull the rug out from under them at the last minute and then do so in such a way where again, you know, and again, some of this is rumor less confirmed, but other players might be coming out the door with you. That's burning that bridge.
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Chapter 4: How does the transfer portal affect college athletes' career decisions?
And at a certain point, you have to ask yourself, what's the cost benefit of making a few extra million dollars versus completely destroying the relationships you had previously? That's something that, again, in my line of work is, you know, in research and your line of work in law, you know, that wouldn't be something that we would necessarily do because relationships matter.
Maybe slightly less so in the world of athletics, but I would argue you still want to have that network. You know, you still want to have fans of Duke University look back on your time somewhat fondly rather than despising you. You know, Duke fans still love Riley Leonard for the most part, even though he transferred to Notre Dame. It was understandable. Mike Elko had just left.
Duke was not in the state that it is now. He had the chance to go compete for a national championship in Notre Dame. I think most Duke fans really enjoyed when he got his chance to, you know, to play for Indianapolis and start, you know, those couple of games this year because we still have really fond memories of that young man.
that's going to serve him well in his life, having a Duke network supporting him. I don't think there's any Duke fans who are going to be feeling similarly about Darian Mensah. And I just hope that he factored that into his decision-making.
If he decided that the extra money that he was going to make from this year at Miami outweighed the lifetime of connections and relationships that he was burning, then he made the right decision for him.
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Chapter 5: What are the potential legal ramifications for Duke regarding Mensah's contract?
But I feel like too often in this world of agents and camps and everyone getting in someone's ear, that those factors aren't included in the decision making. And again, I hope Darian Mensah made the right decision for him rather than just making a knee-jerk reaction to a shiny dollar figure amount.
Well, the thing is he made the decision for him and didn't consider anyone but him, right? And it's very evident, right? We've heard some rumors about other players, as you mentioned, that might have decided at the last minute to go out with him, not necessarily transfer to Miami or where he's transferring, but just to enter the transfer portal and keep their options open.
Because there were some guys who clearly were shocked by this news. If you look on social media, the amount of players who had WTF emojis type of thing or gifts where you could clearly see that they were shocked at this news, it was half the team in the hours after that announcement went public. And so you could tell, and you mentioned about the athletic bridges that you burn.
Some of those players are going to be playing on Sundays with him. Right. Like it's not he's not going to have the opportunities to be like, oh, yeah, I'll get to be drafted by his team. But, you know, those guys from Duke and from Tulane, like let's not play with any of those guys. Let's not get any of those guys.
They're going to he's going to interact with some of these players at the next level. in his career.
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Chapter 6: How might NCAA regulations change in response to transfer portal issues?
That's just going to happen. I mean, you just mentioned the Indianapolis thing, right? Like Daniel Jones and Riley Leonard are on the same team. Riley Leonard backs up Daniel Jones. I'm sure Riley Leonard is considered a part of the program, just like Daniel Jones is. And I'm sure together, that's how you were able to have the sync where, okay, you know, you, Daniel Jones goes down and,
Sure, they got Phillip Rivers for a couple of weeks, but really it was about Riley Leonard being healthy and ready to go. And I'm sure someone who was helping with that was a guy who was a part of the same program he was. And so those do matter at the next level, which is what Darian Mintz aspires to be.
And maybe again, as you mentioned, maybe he doesn't care about those because he's not going to be playing with a lot of Miami guys at the next level, too. But that is part of this process is why the brotherhood in basketball is so profound and how so many other universities have tried to mimic that kind of fraternity because it means something.
And at the next level, no matter what, those guys see each other and they know that they're a part of something bigger than themselves. And that bridge will forever be connected. So there's that part. I want to switch to another thing that obviously has come up, and that's the contract that Derry Mensah reportedly had with Duke.
Chapter 7: What strategies can Duke employ to recruit new talent after Mensah's exit?
It was two years, up to $8 million, so up to $4 million per year, and according to several reports out there, there was this provision that Duke held the exclusive NIL rights for Gary Mensah for the life of the contract. And that if he wanted to leave and go somewhere else, those NIL rights did not follow with him.
Duke held onto them unless they and they alone were able, decided they wanted to terminate the contract. Now, as I mentioned a little bit on the Bites, this presents a tricky situation because the natural reaction Scott, for most Duke fans, was sue. Sue them to oblivion, right? Sue them, sue them, sue them. That's not always the right answer.
And I'm saying this as an attorney who makes a living off of other people suing people, right? It's not always the end-all, be-all, best-case scenario. The question is that you have to ask yourself, if you're Duke University, There's three questions. Can they enforce it? Would they enforce it? And should they enforce it?
Chapter 8: How do personal connections impact players' decisions in college football?
And in this case, I think those are three different answers. Can they enforce it? Sure, they can enforce it. Will they? Remains to be seen. Should they? I don't know. I honestly don't know the answer to that question and what's best for Duke University because I want to bring up a situation that's very relevant. Just last year,
There's a defender by the name of Xavier Lucas who left Wisconsin and transferred to Miami. And Wisconsin sued Miami for tampering because he had an NIL deal and he backed out of that deal and said, yeah, I know I signed this contract with you, but I'm going to Miami. That case, right, is Wisconsin trying to get money from Miami for the NIL money that they were going to pay Xavier Lucas.
And basically to kind of soothe for the terms of that contract. I just want to let everyone know that we could do that with Darian Mensah. Duke obviously can't do that, right? But it's not going to stop him from playing. With the exception of the first half, because Xavier Lucas got a targeting call in the Fiesta Bowl. Xavier Lucas is playing on Monday in the National Championship game.
That case is still pending in court. And his attorney is Darian Mensah's attorney. So this is a whole thing where they know that, yes, again, you can sue if you want to, but do you want to tie up Duke and red tape for a couple of years over one player's contract? And the should they part goes back to how will that affect the program? How will that affect...
contracts in general and it's a it's going to be interesting way it's going to be interesting decision for Duke because they could try and set the market in a way they could say hey NCAA since you're not going to do this you're not going to make regulations we're going to have to do it through the enforcement of this contract by legal measures and if they get this right then you may have it where
Players will never sign a two-year deal again because they'll want to back out of it if they do well. And schools are never going to offer it again because they know players can just break it and it won't matter. Then you also have, again, the reputation of the program.
And I'm sure they're weighing the notion that they don't want to be viewed as the program that sues people because that's not going to attract top talent, which is what we're trying to do. And we're already having this situation where Darian Minson is kind of providing yet another example of our real reality that Duke football to some of these guys is just a stepping stone to somewhere else.
It happened with Mike Elko. It's now happening with Darian Mensah. I mean, if you think about some of the guys who left our program last year and transferred to what would be considered better football programs and again, did that without burning bridges and we wish them well. But a lot of guys probably still view Duke football as a stepping stone to somewhere else.
That is a major program, a blue belt program. And I know we don't want to hear that. But that's what I'm seeing through this. And so Duke has to weigh the option of, yeah, we could sue. And I'm sure the emotional reaction, as I mentioned, is to sue them to oblivion, get all the money we possibly can. And that's probably something they're weighing.
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