2025 ACC thread

[Frodo Swagginz]

Let’s say a team, like Duke, is left without a quarterback on their roster, after all the portal stuff shakes out. What are their options?

Play football the way God intended - the triple option.

Or suck for a year.

 

[slugboy]

Let’s say a team, like Duke, is left without a quarterback on their roster, after all the portal stuff shakes out. What are their options?

Predicting starting QBs for every Power 4 college football team in 2026

We're nine months from the 2026 season starting, but we're looking at every power team's QB situation.

www.espn.com

The guess is that they start a red shirt freshman, Dan Mahan.

They were closer to your “no QB” situation, because their backup transferred out because Mensah was there. They have three total QBs. Technically, somebody could walk on, but they probably aren’t better than the players they recruited.

If they were actually out of QBs, you get a player who has done it before—a safety, DB, or Someone who played QB in high school.

When it happened to us, we played our tight end Ken Whisenhunt

 

[stech81]

Let’s say a team, like Duke, is left without a quarterback on their roster, after all the portal stuff shakes out. What are their options?

Basketball

 

[stinger78]

I think the most comical possibility is Duke coming to the realization that contractually they're obligated to continue to purchase NIL rights for Mensah regardless of what team he plays for because otherwise it would violate pay for play so then Mensah fulfills his media obligations for Duke and is paid by them while playing for Miami. That would truly be my favorite outcome in all of this.

If only that could be.

 

[slugboy]

Duke getting a visit from the San Jose State QB (look out Cal!)

Apparently, the TRO for Mensah is getting released later today. @orientalnc gave some info. Mensah can apparently go into the portal, but he can’t enroll anywhere but Duke for now.

 

[Root4GT]

Predicting starting QBs for every Power 4 college football team in 2026

We're nine months from the 2026 season starting, but we're looking at every power team's QB situation.

www.espn.com

The guess is that they start a red shirt freshman, Dan Mahan.

They were closer to your “no QB” situation, because their backup transferred out because Mensah was there. They have three total QBs. Technically, somebody could walk on, but they probably aren’t better than the players they recruited.

If they were actually out of QBs, you get a player who has done it before—a safety, DB, or Someone who played QB in high school.

When it happened to us, we played our tight end Ken Whisenhunt

Interesting read. The author predicts 10 of the 17 ACC teams will have a Transfer in this season as their Starting QB. Even if the author is off by a couple it is still around half the teams in the ACC. The New World of College Football is upon us.

 

[Oldgoldandwhite]

Interesting read. The author predicts 10 of the 17 ACC teams will have a Transfer in this season as their Starting QB. Even if the author is off by a couple it is still around half the teams in the ACC. The New World of College Football is upon us.

My guess is that 50% or more of incoming freshman QB’s transfer at least once in their career.

 

[Mandingo Finkelstein]

My guess is that 50% or more of incoming freshman QB’s transfer at least once in their career.

I'd guess (and only a guess) is it's closer to 80%.

 

[LawTalkin Jacket]

MSN

Duke athletics was granted a temporary restraining order on Wednesday, Jan. 21, in its case against quarterback Darian Mensah.

The temporary restraining order bars Mensah from enrolling at another institution, playing football at another institution, licensing his NIL to another institution or taking any actions that would violate or undermine his contract with Duke. It does not prevent Mensah from entering the transfer portal.

The temporary restraining order is intended to preserve the "status quo" while the university seeks a preliminary injunction and arbitration proceedings regarding the contract continue. It will remain in effect until the preliminary injunction hearing, set for Monday, Feb. 2 at the Durham County Courthouse. Judge Ed Wilson is now presiding over the case as O’Foghludha, a Duke basketball season ticket holder, recused himself from the case.

This may only stick until the hearing on 2/2/26. Duke is touting this as a big win- but it is a very small win which may not last long.

 

[Mandingo Finkelstein]

MSN

Duke athletics was granted a temporary restraining order on Wednesday, Jan. 21, in its case against quarterback Darian Mensah.

The temporary restraining order bars Mensah from enrolling at another institution, playing football at another institution, licensing his NIL to another institution or taking any actions that would violate or undermine his contract with Duke. It does not prevent Mensah from entering the transfer portal.

The temporary restraining order is intended to preserve the "status quo" while the university seeks a preliminary injunction and arbitration proceedings regarding the contract continue. It will remain in effect until the preliminary injunction hearing, set for Monday, Feb. 2 at the Durham County Courthouse. Judge Ed Wilson is now presiding over the case as O’Foghludha, a Duke basketball season ticket holder, recused himself from the case.

This may only stick until the hearing on 2/2/26. Duke is touting this as a big win- but it is a very small win which may not last long.

Thanks for the info. My question is if Mensah is "forced" to stay at Duke, then how much motivation is he full of to play for the institution that is essentially forcing him to play for them? I could be missing something though I admit. Hopefully he throws 6 INT's to Tech defenders on Grant Field this fall.

 

[GTJackets]

Thanks for the info. My question is if Mensah is "forced" to stay at Duke, then how much motivation is he full of to play for the institution that is essentially forcing him to play for them? I could be missing something though I admit. Hopefully he throws 6 INT's to Tech defenders on Grant Field this fall.

I suspect future NFL paychecks will be enough motivation. Tough it out for a year and he can pay for his own country club housing (allegedly). But maybe he can have an off week against Tech.

 

[stinger78]

Thanks for the info. My question is if Mensah is "forced" to stay at Duke, then how much motivation is he full of to play for the institution that is essentially forcing him to play for them? I could be missing something though I admit. Hopefully he throws 6 INT's to Tech defenders on Grant Field this fall.

He won’t play. He will sit and fulfill his obligation. How do you play a guy who has declared his desire to leave your team.

 

[FredJacket]

Thanks for the info. My question is if Mensah is "forced" to stay at Duke, then how much motivation is he full of to play for the institution that is essentially forcing him to play for them? I could be missing something though I admit. Hopefully he throws 6 INT's to Tech defenders on Grant Field this fall.

It seems unlikely they can block or prevent his transfer. They probably have a good case for recouping whatever he was (or will be) paid for not playing the 2nd season he agreed to play. Net... that's a loss for Duke; but best case for them right now.

 

[slugboy]

I’m not saying that Duke will win, but Washington threatened to sue Demond Williams over his revenue sharing contract about two weeks ago. He was supposed to sign with LSU.

He withdrew from the portal, and he’s going to play for the Huskies.

Demond Williams Jr.'s case will test viability of signed contracts

Williams entered the transfer portal days after signing a contract to return to Washington.

www.espn.com

Demond Williams Jr. stays at Washington: Did revenue share contract work as intended?

The dispute at Washington was sorted out before it fully escalated, but it wasn't the first contract controversy, and it won't be the last.

www.nytimes.com

“In the span of a few days, Williams went from signing a new contract to stay with Washington for the 2026 season to announcing his intention to enter the transfer portal. Two days later, he said he will, in fact, remain with the Huskies “after thoughtful reflection.”

Update: temporary restraining order is now public information. Mensah may enter the portal, but (for now) he can’t enroll anywhere else or sign any other deals or play for another team. The TRO hearing is in February, but if this gets tied up in court, he may still be litigating this in the fall, and he might be blocked from practicing with Miami for a while.

Even if he eventually wins, it may be too late to do him any good.

He needs to beat this TRO quickly, and he might not.

 

[ThatGuy]

This whole situation is very interesting for me. Some of you know I used to make a living as an actor - which means I have some insight into the world of actual NIL compensation.

Many years ago when the Screen Actors Guild (SAG) was formed, the actors who formed the union wanted 2 things: 1) to no longer be employees of the studios (instead, independent contractors, thus having control of their career choices), and 2) to be compensated for the use of their name, image, and likeness over time (read: getting residual revenue payments for work they'd done in the past that was still generating revenue for the studio). They hammered out a standard contract that was eventually accepted by the studios (not without a lot of consternation, as you would expect). That contract has changed over time, but most of the basic tenets regarding NIL compensation still live on.

An interesting wrinkle comes with the SAG (now SAG-AFTRA) standard contract for commercials. Booking a national commercial as an actor is a big deal. Not only can it be very lucrative (you can easily make >$100K off of 1 national spot), but it also has some distinct contract and compensation considerations.

Basically, if you sign a standard SAG-AFTRA commercial contract with an advertiser, they pay you in 3 distinct ways: first they pay you for the session fee (the days' wages to shoot the commercial). Then they pay you usage fees (the aforementioned residuals). There are different pay scales for Class A network TV, cable, and streaming. The really interesting part to me here: lastly, after 13 weeks (and every 13 weeks thereafter), they have to pay you a holding fee. This fee allows the advertiser to retain the right to re-air your work, but it also compensates you for holding a conflict. Meaning: as long as they're paying you, you can't go and do a commercial for a direct or indirect competitor. Your name, image and likeness are bound to their product.

As an actor, you can't just say "hey, I want to buy out Southwest so I can go do a commercial for Delta." I mean, you can say that - but the agreement is very clear that you agreed to X compensation in order to not go to a competitor. Consideration has been exchanged. You're free to take other jobs, just not commercials with brands that directly compete.

This is why you don't see the same people in Coca-Cola ads and Pepsi ads. It's also why you see situations like the former Verizon spokesperson suddenly appearing in a Sprint commercial. After years of paying his holding fees, Verizon decided they would stop. Which freed him to go on and do a commercial for their largest competitor.

BACK TO CFB:

To me, the most mindblowing thing about this Mensah situation with Duke is that their grounds for keeping him could more than anything be tied to actual Name, Image and Likeness. As in, "Your image is tied to us. We gave you consideration (a holding fee of some sort), and you agreed to not use your name, image, or likeness to support a competitor."

There is obviously a precedent for this arrangement, going as far back as the first SAG commercial contract.

After a few years of "NIL" being an out-in-the-open way to simply pay players to play, Duke could hold him to the actual terms of an NIL agreement, since athlete NIL (on the playing field regularly) is a lot different than actor NIL (on recorded footage). By going somewhere else, he by default can't execute the terms of using his NIL to promote Duke.

Anyway, it's going to be very interesting to see how this works out. Especially with rumors that the Big 10 has given its members a solid contract to protect them from this sort of thing. I do ultimately think collective bargaining is needed, if nothing else to have both sides agree on what is a "fair" NIL contract, so that both sides feel protected.

We'll get there - but until we do, my popcorn bowl is ready.

 

[RonJohn]

what are Dook's damages? if they paid him for last season, they got their money's worth, they likely haven't paid him for next season yet so they can't ask for that money back. They can say he breached and has to come back, but court won't MAKE him play for Dook if he don't want to, so Dook says "play for us or not at all" which court is also unlikely to do since him sitting out could destroy his career, will cost him $6m, and just isn't good for the economy in general. So, he can play somewhere and Dook has no QB.

I would say, IF Dook went and got AMendoza, for $6m, they could argue that they had to pay an extra $2m for a QB so Mensah owes them that difference. If Dook can't find a QB and pays their eventual starter less than $4m, they would say "sure, but we lost 3 more games than we would have lost with him, and we lost ticket sales and tv revenue and ACC championship revenue that we would have gotten had he stayed, but that stuff is impossible to prove because the whole team is new and people aren't cancelling season tix by hundreds because Mensah is gone. So I am not sure what Dook could "win" other than a slap on wrist for Miami who may have tampered.

I do think that this could expose the entire myth about NIL and show that this is not NIL, but pay for play and ultimately prove that the athletes are employees and should be treated accordingly (with a union and collective bargaining).

I was only trying to interpret McKenzie's analysis. I don't think he was saying that Duke's damages are $4 million. He said that the Mensah contract limits total liability of either side to the total consideration paid by Duke to Mensah. In that part, he was saying that Duke is claiming "irreparable harm", but they put a value to any potential harm in the contract. I understand that to be saying that if you put a dollar amount to it in the contract, then it can't be irreparable, it has a dollar value.

I am not a lawyer. I have not read the contract. (except exerpts) I don't now any of the actual facts. However, from what is public, it appears that Mensah did indead violate the contract. Determination of damages could happen. If it is legally determined that there are no damages to Duke, then that sets up a scenario where the schools are legally required to pay based on the contract, but the players can break the contract at any time with no penalty.

 

[CLHarperJackt]

Anybody old enough to remember when torturous contract negotiations only happened with the pros?

Yes, I've been thinking that Duke should also sue Miami for torturous interference of a contract as well!

 

[ThatGuy]

If it is legally determined that there are no damages to Duke, then that sets up a scenario where the schools are legally required to pay based on the contract, but the players can break the contract at any time with no penalty.

This is the thing that keeps standing out to me. The system is largely one-sided now. Hell, even when the coaches had "unlimited free agency" and the players were stuck in one place, the coaches at least had a pretty hefty buyout clause that offered them the incentive to stay and the schools some protection. Now, given all the restrictions on contracts (no "pay to play," etc), the balance of power has shifted precipitously in favor of the players.

I could see the courts ruling the way you described (i.e., Duke has no damages). If that was to happen, I would hope Duke would appeal it as far up as necessary. Because if the contract only protects one side, the shelf life of CFB just got a whole lot shorter.

 

[Poodletop]

Is it true that sleazy Miami booster Nevin Shapiro is now out of prison? He’d cheerfully cover any Miami expenses or penalties.

 

[Techwood Relict]

I used to make a living as an actor