Ole Miss is weighing whether to take two former football players to court over buyout money it says is still owed after their transfers to LSU.
Athletic director Keith Carter said the school has been waiting about six months for payments tied to Princewill Umanmielen and Devin Harper, and he made clear that legal action is on the table if the issue doesn’t get resolved.
"That would be an option, going and asking a court to get that money for you," Carter said. "Contracts are with the players.
LSU could pay that on behalf of the players. So we're kind of exploring all of that right now."
Umanmielen and Harper both signed revenue sharing contracts with Ole Miss before entering the transfer portal and later ending up at LSU. Carter said the payments are still outstanding, and he declined to say exactly how much the school is seeking from each player.
"I don't really want to comment on that," Carter said. "It was significant. They were good players."
On3 reported the combined buyout figure is just under $1 million.
Carter said the situation is different from the NIL setup many fans are used to hearing about. These were revenue sharing contracts, which are directly between the school and the player, with buyouts spelled out in the deal. NIL agreements, by contrast, involve outside collectives and other supplemental opportunities.
He also said college athletic departments have generally been reluctant to go after 18-year-olds over buyout language, but Ole Miss views these cases differently because the contracts were signed and then broken almost immediately.
"Those are the kind that, having signed a brand-new rev share contract basically a week or two before wanting to leave, those are the kind that put you in a bind, especially there in the portal cycle," Carter said. "Those two we're going to continue to figure out how to collect. We feel like based on the contract we deserve to collect."
Carter added that it is customary for the school a player transfers to to cover the buyout fee, and he said Ole Miss has paid some buyout fees on behalf of incoming players.
The Rebels also have a few off-field business items moving along. Carter said Ole Miss has finalized a field sponsorship for Vaught-Hemingway Stadium this season and hopes to announce it in a couple weeks. He said jersey patches are still unresolved for 2026.
"Jersey patches, we're still working on that one," Carter said. "We do not currently have one for this year. Not saying that we couldn't by the time the season starts, but we don't have one secured."
Aflac was the first company to land a football field sponsorship with Ole Miss, doing so during the Rebels’ Nov. 15 home game against Florida. Carter said that was not a permanent arrangement and that Aflac is not the sponsor the school has already signed for 2026.
Beyond that, Ole Miss is still in the early stages of a major development project north of Vaught-Hemingway Stadium. The school put out an RFP on Dec. 10 seeking a development partner for a mixed-use project across 25 acres, according to a Sports Business Journal report the next day.
Carter said Ole Miss has identified a preferred partner and is now working through contract details.
"That's going to be a process that's probably going to take several months to work through," Carter said. "The most important thing is we get IHL (Institute of Higher Learning) approval and work through that with IHL staff and IHL board members and talk to them about why the project is important to our campus."
The plan calls for condos, retail, dining, suites and office space. Carter said the goal is to make the area active year-round, not just on football Saturdays.
"The Chancellor (Glenn Boyce) and I will work on that together over the next several months as well," Carter said. "I think it could add a lot of value.
That building is used seven or eight times a year. To be able to bring more value to that, kind of 365, would be really cool."
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