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There’s been more turnover than ever in college football since the start of the NIL Era, and that influx of money has also led to a spike in the number of messy divorces between players and teams. That includes the one involving Georgia and former linebacker Damon Wilson, who is being taken to court after taking his talents to Missouri.
There was little doubt that the landscape of college sports was going to undergo a dramatic overhaul once student-athletes were able to profit off their name, image, and likeness. Most fans agreed players deserved to be compensated to some degree, but those who are happy with how things have panned out since the floodgates opened are firmly in the minority.
There’s only so much the NCAA could do to regulate the Wild West that emerged when the NIL Era began in 2021, but it’s hard not to be very underwhelmed by how the powers that be have handled things. It’s also hard to blame players for jumping into the transfer portal in search of a bigger payday, but the ease with which they’re able to do so has created plenty of issues and spawned a ton of awkward situations.
That includes the one that has resulted in the wake of a former Georgia LB defecting to another program shortly after inking a deal with the school’s NIL collective, and he has been hit with a massive lawsuit as a result.
Georgia is suing former DE Damon Wilson for breach of contract after he transferred to Missouri
Damon Wilson was a five-star recruit who made a name for himself at Venice High School in Florida before taking his talents to the University of Georgia in 2023. He was largely relegated to a backup role as a freshman before starting in 13 of the 14 games he appeared in as a sophomore while tallying 22 total tackles and three sacks.
Wilson decided to transfer to Missouri prior to the start of the most recent season before moving from linebacker to defensive end, and he emerged as a valuable contributor for the Tigers as an edge rusher who had 20 tackles and nine sacks over the course of the regular season.
According to ESPN, Wilson signed an agreement with Classic City Collective, the NIL brokerage that Georgia operated at the time, a couple of weeks before he announced his decision to transfer to Missouri in January. He received $30,000 from the school before heading to Columbia, but it is seeking much, much more in the legal filing he’s ended up at the center of.
The outlet reports Georgia’s athletic department is requesting arbitration in a case where it is looking for Wilson to reimburse it to the tune of $390,000 over the “liquidated damages” it argues it is owed after he failed to live up to his end of the bargain. The junior was slated to receive $30,000 a month over the course of 14 months (along with two $40,000 bonuses), and the contract he signed required him to pay back any money he didn’t receive (sans bonuses) if he transferred to another program.
A spokesperson for the school issued a fairly straightforward statement explaining the rationale for the lawsuit, saying:
“When the University of Georgia Athletic Association enters binding agreements with student-athletes, we honor our commitments and expect student-athletes to do the same.”
The terms of the contract stated Wilson had 30 days to pay the nearly $400K total after he departed, and it doesn’t seem like Georgia has received a single cent. As the outlet notes, this isn’t the first time a school has gone a similar route, as Arkansas previously went after Madden Iamaleava and Dazmin James for transferring to UCLA and Cal, respectively.
It does not appear that those cases have been settled, and it will be very interesting to see how this one plays out.