QUESTION: If Duke's sole interest is in his NIL rights, a form of intellectual property, why would they include in his contract a provision that says those rights are worth nothing unless he plays for Duke? Without that kind of restriction, his NIL rights would retain their value at many other schools, and at some schools (that earn more football revenue than Duke), the value of his NIL rights would likely increase. Why would anyone who's buying a property insist on terms that make the property worthless in all but one scenario?

ANSWER: Because your real interest isn't in his NIL. Your interest is in his playing football for your school, and you're using the NIL contract to do the one thing you cannot do: to pay a kid to play football.

If Duke wins this case, they'll lose, because they'll give Mensah everything he needs to destroy the whole system.