Chapter 1: What is the main topic discussed in this episode?
Thank you.
Hi there, Duke fans. Episode 138 of DBR Bites Duke Basketball Roundup. I am Jason. I'm here with Donald. And we had kind of suspected something like this might be coming down the line, didn't we, Donald? We're recording.
around 4 30 p.m on wednesday afternoon uh this news broke on tuesday but we're going to react to it now the news i'm talking about is of course the fact that darian mensah and duke university have settled their lawsuit um All the things we've heard is that they've settled it. Both sides have agreed and everything's fine. But it has cleared the way for Darian Mensah to go to Miami.
Donald, I think he's ā has he already announced his ā he's already announced his commitment, I believe.
Both him and Cooper Barcade announced late last night that they were committed to Miami.
Right.
We saw both Darien Mensah and Cooper Barclay on a visit to Miami on Tuesday, like shortly after the settlement was announced. They were already visiting Miami. And yeah, it took them, you know, only a matter of hours to go ahead and make their commitment. Donald, I'll start by saying congrats to those two guys on getting paid. I'm sure that Miami paid top top top dollar for both of them. I
I think the reason we want to chat about this is is the fact that Duke settled you as a lawyer predicted. You said this is probably going to get settled. And you said, you know, it's a question of how much money we do not know how much money has changed hands.
Yeah.
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Chapter 2: What recent legal settlement involving Duke and Darian Mensah was announced?
Like they could have said, oh, you know, Vince has got to pay 15 million dollars and people would go. He's still leaving. He's still leaving us an alert. We can't use that money at least this year on NIL for other players because the portal's closed and and money that goes out goes out. It doesn't you can't like replace it with money coming back in.
This is like a ledger here where you can say we took in profit and apply that towards the NIL. But I think legally, as I mentioned, 95%, even higher probably, of cases that enter this sort of
portion of litigation get settled like that's what you aim for and even Duke in their statement they kind of said hey we wanted to resolve this uh I want to read this quickly I want to read this correctly we sought quote we sought to resolve the matter fairly and quickly quickly being the key term there because they said we don't want to have a long drawn-out fight that doesn't benefit Duke it doesn't benefit Darian Mensah it doesn't benefit the program
They wanted to assert their rights, and they did that. And they may be one of the few teams that have actually gotten some sort of compensation from a player to be let out of an NIL deal. And whatever that number is... It's one that Duke was happy with, and we as fans don't have to be happy with it, but Duke was happy with it.
And I think a lot of us would understand that Duke does not want to be drawn into a long, drawn-out litigation or arbitration where a lot of money is spent, particularly in this environment when I might want to add, Jason, that Duke has been targeted by ā
This administration for funding cuts and Duke has already had to do some huge financial sacrifices in the form of cutting people, cutting jobs over the last couple of months, and they've had to cut back on a lot of expenses and things like that because of. being able to try and preserve some of the things that they know they need government funding for.
So again, this is something where Duke did not want a long drawn out case. They wanted to figure out a way to part ways amicably, and they've done that. And I think for me, at least, it's about moving forward with the guys that we do have.
I think a lot of people wanted to keep Derry Mensah there for some punitive reason, but you and I, I think opined last time, we don't want a guy on our team that doesn't want to be here. He clearly didn't want to be here. He's now gone.
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Chapter 3: How did Darian Mensah's commitment to Miami unfold after the settlement?
He's gone to Miami. Cooper Barcade didn't want to be here. He's also at Miami. So we'll see him on November 14th. And until then, we're going to rock with the guys we have. Walter Egott since then has committed to Duke from San Jose State. So he's another quarterback that's going to try and win the competition in that quarterback room.
So, yeah, the longest story of it, Jason, is a settlement was going to happen. It happened. And now at least Duke as a university and as a football program can move forward.
So on the settlement and on the amount of it, even though we have no idea, I feel pretty comfortable that it's probably north of a million dollars. It could be multiple millions of dollars.
I want to point out something to folks because it's very easy for us as fans to say, you know, oh, an extra million here or there, extra couple, few, maybe even more than that million doesn't make up for the fact that we're not going to have a really dynamic Heisman Trophy candidate kind of quarterback on our team. The fans who feel that way are not wrong. But I want to point out a couple things.
The first one is this. The money that Duke takes in, while not being money that we can spend on NIL for players, you know, that money is capped. That money is very specific to let's say Duke took in two ā I'm just going to ā again, I have no idea. Let's say Duke took in $2 million here. Well, there are other things that Duke can do with that $2 million. Maybe it's something with facilities.
Maybe it's something with coaching salaries. Maybe it's something in terms of other benefits to the football team. And as a result of that, Duke may be able to free up money from donors. Ordinarily, you would go out to your big money donors and say, hey, we need this or that. Can you write us a half a million dollar check? Can you write us a million dollar check for these kind of things?
Duke may be able to go to those donors and say, you know what? Don't need that from you this year. We've got this settlement. We got a little bit of extra money. And as a result, can you turn a little more of your efforts toward our NIL, our off the books, whatever you want to call it, the not from Duke, but from Duke boosters NIL program. So I think in that way, the money helps no matter what.
There's another way the money helps. duke had allocated four million dollars toward the quarterback position for next year's team you mentioned we've gotten walter eget now we also have dan uh mahan in in the you know who's also compete you know we don't know who's exactly gonna compete for the starting job we we think it's probably those two guys
Again, I have no idea what anybody's making from their NIL contracts, but I'll tell you for damn well sure, there's no way that Walker Eget and Dan Mahan are making anywhere close to a million dollars. That'd be my bet. So Duke has freed up some money from its NIL pile, probably several million from its NIL pile that it can now put to other positions on the field.
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Chapter 4: What are the implications of the settlement for Duke's football program?
So there are a number of ways that you're able to move this money pile, so to speak, around and benefit the football team.
I mean, as fast as NIL is moving, Jason, we could use it. It might be at some point, not so distant future, that we may use that money to get somebody who was in the NFL, right? Like that's how quickly NIL is kind of moving, right? And we've seen teams try to get guys who have been in NFL camps. That's a whole other conversation. But again, just because we can't use it for this one reason
Pot doesn't mean there aren't other pots that could be filled with that money. So I think you're right on that. I think the other thing, Jason, I would point out is the next call that a lot of people have seen you've seen online and chat rooms and on Twitter is the word tampering. Right. That Miami that we should go after Miami for tampering. Well, I.
Now that the contract is done, right, now that we have a settlement, that contract has been terminated. So there is no cause for tampering. Now, people may say, oh, this case may not deal with that. But the problem is everything that is tied to is tied to that contract, right? Any tortious interference that you would say happened would be in that particular contract, which is now ripped up.
So there is nothing to go based off of that. The other thing about that is, as I mentioned in the last episode or last episode, we talked about this. Xavier Lucas is still in the middle of a transfer.
Yeah, Missouri.
Wisconsin. Wisconsin. Sorry, Wisconsin. Thank you. And Wisconsin sued Miami for tampering, and that was over a year ago. As I've mentioned, Xavier Lucas played an entire year of football, including in the national championship game. That case has not yet reached the discovery phase. Again, it goes back to a lot of people. I get it. Again, emotional side would be Duke should go after this.
We have the money to do it. We does not include me. I don't have that money. And the last thing we would probably want is for Duke to say, hey, we need a couple extra million dollars because we need to fight a couple of lawsuits for the next year or so instead of putting it towards, again, other things in the field, facilities, coaches, NIL, what have you.
So, again, there's a lot of emotion around this, and that's all fair. And you should have emotion about this. I'm sure that emotion is going to kick up, Jason, on November 14th when Duke travels to Miami. In a big way.
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Chapter 5: What emotional reactions do fans have regarding Duke's settlement?
In a big way. And we'll be right there with it. But there are other there are some times where you have to just say, what do we want? I asked this question before. What do we want as a school? The school said we want to resolve this fairly and quickly, end quote. That's what they wanted. That's what they ended up getting.
We don't know the number, but I'm sure it's the number that they said, that sounds good to us. I'm sure Mensa probably said, yeah, okay, I can do that. He wasn't happy with it either. The thing about a settlement and the compromise is both parties are going to walk away from this unhappy.
You can grade what happiness is to you, but at least for those parties, both of them probably did not get everything that they wanted out of it, but they got the most important thing, which was they went their separate ways.
Yeah, and the last thing I'd say about all this is the one thing that disappoints me a little bit is we don't really know where things stand in terms of multi-year NIL contracts. I think that this probably... The fact that this case caused a little bit of a headache for Darien Mensah, but then eventually he got what he wanted. He paid to get what he wanted, but he got what he wanted.
And I'm very confident that whatever Miami is paying him is more than making up for whatever he is paying to Duke to make the contract go away. I would like to live in a world where multi-year contracts are something that could be real. for college athletes, whether it be football or basketball or any other sport.
I think having some roster stability and having some ability to say, okay, we're making a commitment to you and you're making a commitment to us and that commitment matters the same way it does in pro sports. In every other pro sport, you can sign a multi-year contract and that binds you to your team. I wish we were in a world where that kind of thing could happen in college.
And I get why Duke settled. It all makes perfect sense. But there's a little piece of me that was kind of hoping that we would hear something that would make it so that people would understand. And by people, I mean athletes and agents. oh, if I sign a multi-year deal, I need to adhere to it because I don't think we heard that from this settlement in any way, shape or form.
And I worry that the Wild West that currently exists has not been tamed at all.
I think the term that you're going to hear a lot over the next year when it comes to multi-year potential deals is the word buyout. The reason why we were in this predicament is that Mensa tried to get out of a contract that did not have a buyout, and you kind of had to leave it to a judge, or in this case, a settlement, to figure out what that number is.
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Chapter 6: How does Duke's financial situation affect their football program post-settlement?
This is sort of Duke's annual pasting of a Division I AA team. You know, we do it every year. and then we get into the full ACC. We take a break. We have a week off, and we get into the full ACC schedule at Georgia Tech against North Carolina, at Virginia, Boston College coming to Durham, at NC State, at Miami November 14th. We have circled that one on the calendar for sure.
Clemson comes to Durham, and then our final game at Wake Forest. Donald, I think this is one of the tougher schedules I've ever seen for a Duke football team. What's your assessment of it?
My joking assessment is the ACC said never again. We're not doing this whole thing where Duke backs their way into the ACC championship and wins.
They changed the tiebreaker rules already.
Well, the funny thing is I'm not even worried about the tiebreaker rules because, again, it was the 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6 tiebreaker that got us in. So you can change one through four all you want. They didn't come into play in that situation. But my point is they added the ninth game. The ninth game is at Miami, who we've gone in the last three times we've played them.
We've played them down in Miami. We have Tulane and Illinois. Of course, those are non-conference schedule. And those are two teams that we lost to last year. I actually liked it there the first two games of the year because it gets our mind right to try and get some exact some revenge against those two teams. But I think that November slate, Jason, is the killer here.
At NC State, who's supposed to be much improved. At Miami, of course, that date circled for many reasons, but also Miami is expected to contend again for the college football playoff. Clemson is expected to be better. That's our last home game. And then at Wake Forest, who gave us a ride this year, and next year, again, is supposed to be much improved.
So I'm thinking when it comes to this whole thing, So we're going to have to start out early. If we can get a couple of wins under our belt early, that'll help with confidence.
But if we struggle like we did this year, it's going to be hard to make that up before you hit November where you really have a murderer's row of almost all the potential teams that you can see, if you think about it, for the last seven weeks of the season. UVA, who pasted us in the regular season, we saw them in the ACC championship. Boston College is the only Gibby, air quotes, right?
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Chapter 7: What challenges does Duke face in the upcoming football season?
So... Everyone here is sitting there. Don't do the woe with me. We can sit here and be angry about what just transpired because we should be angry. But let's use that anger next season. We have nine months to get it right. So I'm looking forward to the season. And sure, some of these guys are going to earn their stripes through practice and through spring practice and through the summer.
And let's earn it right there with them. Let's be ready on September 5th when Tulane comes to town.
I love it. I love it. Hey, that's going to wrap it up here on the latest edition of DBR Bites Duke Basketball Roundup. Guess what, folks? We'll be back in your feed in less than 24 hours with some actual basketball content. We've got to look ahead to a big game this weekend at Virginia Tech, a very, very interesting team. I can't wait to tell you all about them.
We will have that coming at you very, very soon. Until then, here's the Duke band playing us out and taking us home.