BREAKING: Duke Denied Restraining Order Preventing Darian Mensah From Joining Miami

[ASFN Admin]

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At the eleventh hour of the transfer portal window, Mensah entered the portal with a ‘do not contact’ tag. It has been widely speculated, and Barry Jackson of the Miami Herald recently reported via a source, that Mensah intends to join the University of Miami.

This morning, in the wake of the National Championship Game, Duke University sued Darian Mensah from entering the transfer portal, citing a breach of his Name, Image, and Likeness (“NIL”) agreement. Mensah is in the middle of a two-year agreement reportedly worth $4M annually.

Duke requested, among other relief, a temporary restraining order (“TRO”) be entered enjoining Mensah from leaving Duke and joining another football program. TROs are extreme forms of relief designed to ‘maintain the status’ quo by enjoining some activity at the outset of a case to avoid having to put the proverbial genie back in the bottle. In the employment context, TROs are often granted to prevent employees from joining a competitor who is subject to a non-compete agreement, or if there’s a risk that the employee would disclose the company’s trade secrets to the competitor.

But today, shortly after the lawsuit was filed in North Carolina, the court denied Duke’s request to temporarily restrain Mensah from leaving Duke and joining another University.

The request for a TRO from him entering the portal was denied. The rest will get decided at a later date.

— Darren Heitner (@heitner) January 20, 2026

A formal, written order is expected soon from the court publishing its reasoning for denying the motion. But the immediate take away is that a North Carolina court has initially refused Duke’s request to prevent Darian Mensah from transferring to Miami, or another school of his choice. That decision can, and may be, quickly revisited in a preliminary injunction hearing to be held in the near future – a more detailed, evidentiary hearing, than a TRO request. But the court’s decision to deny a TRO is an initial blow not just to Duke fans but to any university that might seek to prevent student athletes from transferring subject to an NIL agreement.

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