Ole Miss is heading into a messy, modern kind of college sports fight: a lawsuit over buyout money, player movement and revenue-sharing contracts that could end up being decided less by a courtroom showdown than by a negotiated deal.
The school is suing former players Princewill Umanmielen and Devin Harper for nearly $1 million in unpaid buyouts after both transferred to LSU. Legal experts say Ole Miss has a real shot at collecting at least part of that money, but the bigger number on the filing may not be what the school ultimately gets.
The core issue is whether the buyout clauses in those contracts are enforceable. Umanmielen and Harper can argue the penalties are too high and therefore punitive, which would make them illegal. The fight, experts said, is really about whether the amounts Ole Miss is demanding match the actual value of the players’ services when the contracts were signed.
Ole Miss filed separate civil suits against Umanmielen and Harper on July 27 in the Circuit Court of Lafayette County. The school says the players signed revenue deals for 2026 and then followed coach Lane Kiffin to LSU. In the filings obtained by the Clarion Ledger, Ole Miss says Umanmielen owes $550,000 and Harper owes $400,000.
The timing is part of Ole Miss’ argument. The school says Umanmielen transferred to LSU 18 days after signing, while Harper left 10 days after signing.
North Carolina professor Barbara Osborne, who specializes in sports law, said a buyout - or liquidated damages clause - is supposed to compensate for a loss of services, not punish the player who leaves.
“If you're looking at a liquidated damages clause, that would have to be an amount that would be reasonable based on the information that both sides had at the time that it was agreed to," Osborne said.
That leaves the players with a narrower path than simply trying to wipe out the debt altogether. Experts said their best argument is likely for a reduction, not a total dismissal of the buyouts.
Wake Forest sports law professor Timothy Davis said the court will look at whether the amounts were reasonable based on the players’ value when the contracts were signed. That part gets tricky fast, because football market value is not easy to pin down.
Umanmielen led Ole Miss with nine sacks in 2025. Harper was a freshman in 2025, played in six games and was considered a promising prospect.
Georgia sports law professor Thomas Alexander Baker said the revenue-sharing contracts themselves could help Ole Miss, because both sides already agreed on a price for the 2026 season. That gives the court a built-in starting point for valuation.
Ole Miss, Baker said, is in the stronger position if it can show the players were going to earn that much in 2026. But the school cannot recover more than the value of the contract.
“It would not be punitive to sue for the remaining value of the contract," Baker said. "You can’t value more than what the contract is worth.”
Osborne said Ole Miss could also try to argue that the buyouts should be measured against the maximum any school might have paid for the players’ services in 2026, not just what Ole Miss itself was set to pay.
"This is the uncharted territory because all of this stuff is so new," Osborne said.
If a judge decides the buyouts are punitive and unenforceable, the outcome could go a couple of different ways. Duke law professor Paul Haagen said the court could simply reduce the amounts to something fair, or it could throw out more than just the penalty portion.
"It's possible the rest of the contract would hold, but they would throw out the punitive damage for certain," Haagen said. "It's possible they'd throw the entire agreement out."
However this unfolds, the case is expected to move slowly. Haagen said the timeline is more likely to be months than weeks, and Mississippi civil procedure will determine whether the two cases stay separate or get consolidated.
A trial, though, may never come. Since this is about money, experts said settlement is the most likely ending.
"I would expect this case to (to settle)," Haagen said. "I'd be kind of surprised if it actually gets tried.".
There is also a more aggressive route Ole Miss could explore, though it is considered unlikely. Baker raised the idea of “negative enforcement of specific performance,” arguing that the school could say it owns the NIL rights to the players and that those rights cannot be used elsewhere until payment is made.
Ole Miss cannot force Umanmielen or Harper to play for the Rebels, but Baker said it could try to block them from using those rights at another school. Still, he called it a difficult path because it would require the court to act in equity rather than through the usual contract-damages framework.
"It's a difficulty road because you are suing under equity," Baker said.
Baker also criticized SEC commissioner Greg Sankey for not stepping in before the players broke their revenue-sharing contracts.
That kind of move would be unusual. Duke faced a similar situation with quarterback Darian Mensah, and the matter ended in settlement before Mensah transferred to Miami.
For now, Ole Miss has the lawsuit, the numbers and the leverage of signed contracts. But the final price tag, legal experts say, is probably still up for negotiation.
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