Ole Miss Serves Umanmielen Court Papers Before LSU Showdown — SkimNews
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- Princewill Umanmielen was served with court papers Tuesday in the parking lot outside LSU's football facility, stemming from Ole Miss's July 27 lawsuit seeking $550,000 from him in breach-of-contract damages.
- Ole Miss also named LSU offensive lineman Devin Harper in the same complaint for $400,000, pushing the total damages sought to close to $1 million plus attorneys' fees and court costs.
- Court records show Umanmielen received the plaintiff's first set of interrogatories, requests for production of documents, and requests for admission on Tuesday; neither he nor Harper has an attorney listed in the docket.
- Ole Miss alleges Umanmielen signed a revenue-sharing deal to return to the Rebels on Jan. 3, entered the transfer portal Jan. 20, and signed with LSU on Jan. 21; Harper signed a deal to stay on Jan. 6 and signed with LSU on Jan. 16.
- Both contracts included a 90-day penalty window, and neither player responded to Ole Miss's payment requests within the required 30-day deadline after being served a summons on Aug. 14.
- Sources told ESPN the lawsuit is strategically aimed at forcing LSU to account for the $950,000 on its revenue-sharing cap rather than collecting from the former players themselves.
- The timing lands ahead of No. 7 LSU's visit to No. 8 Ole Miss on Saturday (7:30 p.m. ET, ABC), a game that also marks coach Lane Kiffin's return to Vaught-Hemingway Stadium after six seasons running the Rebels' program.
- Umanmielen leads the FBS with five sacks in two games since joining LSU, having previously played two seasons at Nebraska and one at Ole Miss in 2025.
Why it matters: Sources told ESPN the lawsuit isn't actually about collecting $950,000 from two college athletes — it's about forcing that exact sum onto LSU's revenue-sharing cap, the new NIL-era mechanism that limits how much programs can pay players. By suing now, Ole Miss creates a legal paper trail that could complicate LSU's roster accounting right before a top-10 matchup and a coaching subplot involving Lane Kiffin's return to Oxford.
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