What College Basketball Can Learn From The Football Transfer Portal

The transfer portal for football athletes closed on Friday, January 16^th. Although a shorter window will open January 20-24 for players in the national championship, we’ve seen enough to know a few things basketball athletes should watch out for in April when it’s their turn.

Know whether you can grant your NIL to another institution

Demond Williams Jr. appeared to be leaving Washington for LSU shortly after signing a new revenue sharing contract with the Huskies. However, it didn’t take long for him to get dropped by his agent, hire a lawyer, and do an about-face and return to Seattle.

We don’t know exactly what was in Williams’s contract, but we do know that Washington’s revenue sharing contract template includes a clause that gives the Huskies an irrevocable license for the athlete’s NIL, which is exclusive in connection with educational institutions.

In other words, he couldn’t license his NIL to LSU or anyone else. If he can’t do that, LSU can’t offer him their own revenue sharing contract, because those contracts are for use of the athlete’s NIL, not for athletic performance per NCAA rules.

I recently reviewed three Big Ten contracts, which are all revised versions of the conference’s contract template, and Purdue’s did have a clause that said it may agree to accept a buyout from another institution to release the athlete from the contract. In that case, the athlete would be able to offer their NIL to the other school.

Watch out for liquidated damages clauses

On the opposite coast, a battle is brewing between former Georgia pass rusher Damon Wilson II and UGA. Wilson’s signed term sheet with the Bulldogs had what’s called a liquidated damages clause (also present in Washington’s contract template), which UGA says obligates him to pay them $390,000 of his 14-month, $500,000 deal with them.

Wilson had only collected $30,000 of the deal before transferring to Missouri in January 2025, so the school is saying he owes them that plus another $360,000. Liquidated damages are meant to represent actual damages the school has, or will, incur due to Wilson breaking the contract. However, many attorneys believe these clauses in revenue sharing contracts are acting as a buyout fee meant to punish the athlete for transferring.

In Williams’s case, we’ll never know if his contract had a liquidated damages clause and if a court would find it enforceable. However, we might get to find out what a court thinks in Wilson’s case. The school filed a lawsuit back in December in an attempt to get the money it believes it’s owed, and Wilson filed a countersuit shortly thereafter.

Both are still pending in their respective courts, so don’t know yet whether these clauses will be enforceable, but it’s certainly a lot of money for an athlete to gamble if they didn’t get an agent or attorney who could get this removed from the contract.

Term sheets aren’t contracts . . . or are they?

In Wilson’s countersuit, his legal team claims the term sheet he signed isn’t a legally binding contract and that the Bulldogs committed tortious interference and civil conspiracy against Wilson by telling other football programs Wilson had a $1.2 million buyout to discourage them from signing him.

So, is a term sheet a contract or not?

It depends (I know non-lawyers just love that answer).

A term sheet, memorandum of understanding or letter of intent may be binding on some terms, or even all of them. If material terms are left for future negotiation, or the document clearly states the parties are not bound until a more formal agreement is signed, some or all of it will be unenforceable.

However, if it appears to contain all the necessary terms, some or all of it could be enforceable. Not only does it vary from state to state but from judge to judge.

Yes, it’s basically no-man’s land. A lot of players signed term sheets and memorandums of understanding last summer before schools had finalized their revenue sharing contracts. That means Wilson might not be the only case we see.

It’s important athletes know exactly what they’ve agreed to and how it impacts their ability to sign with another school.

Things move fast with the reduced transfer window

Having the window reduced down to two weeks for the football transfer portal meant things were fast and furious. But, we also saw prices rise. That’s no surprise because players are committing quickly with the reduced window, meaning schools have to make their best offers upfront and some will pay whatever it takes to get the player they need.

That also meant it was more expensive to retain talent. Agents were already talking to players before the window opened, which meant schools had to decide how much they were willing to pay to keep them out of the portal.

But it also meant players had to decide whether to test the waters or stay the course. The evening before the transfer portal closed, there were still more than 1,200 FBS scholarship players who hadn’t been signed by a new school, a source told ESPN.

If an athlete doesn’t have interest before entering the portal, they might not find any interest once they’re in it either. I’m not advocating that schools, athletes or agents break the rules (we’ve already heard several coaches speaking out about other schools tampering), I’m just explaining what played out during this football transfer portal.

This year, the women’s basketball transfer portal will be open from April 6-20 and the men’s will open April 7-21.