By KACE KIEISCHNICK, Tiger Rag Staff Reporter
Almost two months out from LSU and Ole Miss’s highly anticipated Sept. 19 football matchup in Oxford, Mississippi, yet another battle between the Rebels and Tigers could be brewing off the field.
Ole Miss Athletic Director Keith Carter said the university would be open to taking LSU defensive end Princewill Umanmielen and offensive lineman Devin Harper to court for failing to pay their contract buyouts after transferring from Ole Miss to their blood rival in Baton Rouge last January. Their transfers came soon after they signed new revenue-share contracts with Ole Miss, Carter says.
“Having signed a brand-new rev share contract basically a week or two before wanting to leave,” Carter says in Tuesday editions of the Jackson Clarion-Ledger newspaper. “That puts you in a bind, especially there in the portal cycle. We’re going to continue to figure out how to collect. We feel like based on the contract we deserve to collect.”
Umanmielen was the No. 1 edge rusher in the portal and the No. 6 overall transfer in the nation when he signed with LSU in January.
And Harper was the No. 6 interior offensive lineman and No. 112 portal prospect when he signed with the Tigers at the same time. They each followed their head coach at Ole Miss – Lane Kiffin, who left the Rebels to be LSU’s head coach after an 11-1 regular season (7-1 Southeastern Conference) put the Rebels in the college football playoffs for the first time.
No. 3-ranked Guard/Center Devin Harper of Shreveport has now flipped from LSU to Lane Kiffin at Ole Miss and flipped back to Lane Kiffin at LSU.https://t.co/EX7feIxF6e
— Glenn Guilbeau (@SportBeatTweet) January 16, 2026
On3.com reports the two agreements total nearly $1 million.
“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.”
LSU did pay Kiffin’s buyout owed to Ole Miss at a reported $3 million.
Umanmielen announced his return to Ole Miss in early January nine days before going back on that decision and entering the portal on Jan. 15. Since the contracts he and Harper signed were revenue-sharing deals directly with the school, they differ from NIL collective deals, which often explicitly outline player payments and contract buyout scenarios.
LSU portal target quarterback Demond Williams Jr. entered the portal after last season after signing a $4 million deal with Washington. But he pulled back and stayed at Washington after realizing he – or his new school or both – would have to pay a buyout of $4 million to Washington, which threatened legal action for a lot more money than Ole Miss is asking for and in a much more timely fashion than Carter is now.
What grounds Ole Miss has to pursue the buyouts will come down to the verbiage of the contracts.
Even if the university does have the legal high ground to force LSU to pay the buyouts, it could be a bad look for the athletics department. Taking a 20-year-old and a 19-year-old to court for doing what thousands of players have done since the no-sit-out portal began in 2021 could raise national scrutiny.
Prospective recruits and their parents may see the Ole Miss move as a violation of the trust and care that college coaches often advertise they will put into young athletes. Nationally, it could be viewed more as a petty cash grab following the messy departure of Kiffin to Ole Miss’ daddy rivals than as a righteous enforcement of university litigation.
Carter, however, said he is determined to collect the two buyouts after the bind Umanmielen and Harper put Ole Miss in by decommitting their allegiance so soon after inking deals to stay with the Rebels.
When asked about Ole Miss’ potential legal action regarding the two players, LSU athletic department spokesman Zach Greenwell told Tiger Rag that LSU would decline comment.
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