Enforcing the Revenue-Share Contract: Collecting the Buyout and Suing the School That Tampered

Robert Boland, Assistant Professor of Law | Seton Hall University Law School

Robert Boland is both a leading sports law professor and practitioner. He is an Assistant Professor of Law at Seton Hall University Law School where he helps lead a unique J.D. degree certificate program in Gaming, Hospitality, Entertainment and Sports Law.

• Education & Credentials

Boland is graduate of Columbia University, where he was a letterwinner in both Football and Wrestling, and Samford University’s Cumberland School of Law. He is a member of the bars of New York, Georgia and admitted to practice in the Federal Courts of the Eastern District of New York and District of Colorado.

• Recognition & Leadership

Boland has a long record of achievement as both an academic and as an attorney that includes numerous publications, media appearances, and an NFL head coaching search. He served as the director of two highly regarded Sports Management programs at the university level, serving as the founding professor at New York University’s groundbreaking sports business program and eventually as the Academic Chair of its Preston Robert Tisch Center for Hospitality, Tourism, and Sports Management from 2001-2015. He was the director of the acclaimed Masters of Sports Administration (MSA) and MSA/MBA Dual Degree program at Ohio University from 2015-2017.

• Professional Involvement

Boland is one of the plaintiffs’ class counsels in Wisne v. NCAA, pending in federal district court for the District of Colorado challenging the NCAA’s implementation of its 5-for-5 eligibility rules.

• Experience

In addition to his teaching and academic work, Boland also maintains an active sports law practice serving as a co-chair of Shumaker, Loop & Kendrick, LLP’s Sports Entertainment & Hospitality Sector Group. The synergy between these two roles allows Boland to be a part of the most current sports law matters and blend the insights gained to the benefit of both his students and clients.

But perhaps Boland’s most unique professional experience came in 2017 when he was named as the Athletics Integrity Officer at Penn State University, in a role created by consent agreement with the NCAA and Big Ten. Boland oversaw Penn State’s institutional recovery from the Sandusky crisis and monitored its response to the challenges brought on by legalized sports betting, the Varsity Blues investigations, and the transition to NIL in his five years in the role.

Mike Ingersoll, Of Counsel | Womble Bond Dickinson

Mike Ingersoll is Of Counsel in Womble Bond Dickinson’s Charlotte, North Carolina office, where he litigates complex, high-stakes business disputes for businesses and clients of all sizes and counsels’ clients on name, image, and likeness (NIL) matters. A former college and professional football player, he pairs a litigator’s toolkit with first-hand experience of the pressures athletes face on and off the field.

• Education & Credentials

Ingersoll earned his J.D. from the University of North Carolina School of Law, where he was named after the Dean’s List, and his B.A. from the University of North Carolina in Interpersonal and Organizational Communication and Exercise and Sport Science. He is admitted to the North Carolina State Bar, the U.S. District Courts for the Western, Middle, and Eastern Districts of North Carolina, and the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit.

• Recognition & Leadership

Ingersoll has been recognized in Best Lawyers: Ones to Watch in America for Entertainment & Sports Law (2023), named to Business North Carolina’s Legal Elite for Business Law (2023), selected as a North Carolina Rising Star (2024-present), and inducted into the NC Pro Bono Honor Society (2023).

• Professional Involvement

Ingersoll serves on the boards of the Charlotte NFLPA retired players division, the Charlotte Touchdown Club, and the NIL Prep Foundation Board of Advisors. He writes frequently on NIL and student-athlete issues and appears as a panelist and speaker before law associations.

• Experience

Ingersoll’s practice spans class action defense, trade secret litigation, shareholder disputes, internal investigations, and compliance. He has represented clients in NFL and related Congressional investigations, and in 2023 tried one of the largest criminal tax prosecutions in the country, involving conservation easements. He has litigated before numerous state and federal courts as well as in the American Arbitration Association, and previously clerked for North Carolina Business Court judges Louis A. Bledsoe, III and Michael Robinson. At the University of North Carolina, he was a four-year letterman, team captain, ESPN All-Bowl Team selection, and Academic All-ACC honoree, and he went on to play in the National Football League.

Michele H. Himstedt, Senior Associate | Munck Wilson Mandala

Michele H. Himstedt is a Senior Associate at Munck Wilson Mandala in Dallas. Her practice focuses on complex commercial litigation involving high-stakes business disputes and fiduciary relationships, with matters spanning trade secrets, real estate, intellectual property, corporate conflicts, employment discrimination, and NIL and entertainment disputes.

• Education & Credentials

Himstedt earned her J.D., cum laude, from Baylor Law School (2020), where she served as Executive Business Editor of the Baylor Law Review, and her B.S., magna cum laude, in Sociology-Criminology and Communications from the University of Central Arkansas (2017). She is admitted to practice in Texas (2020) and before the U.S. District Courts for the Northern, Southern, Western, and Eastern Districts of Texas.

• Recognition & Leadership

Himstedt has been recognized in Best Lawyers: Ones to Watch (2026-2027), named a Texas Rising Star by Thomson Reuters (2025), and included among Latino Leaders Magazine’s Latino Lawyers to Keep on the Watch (2024).

• Professional Involvement

Himstedt is a member of the Dallas Association of Young Lawyers, the Women Lawyers Association, the Dallas Bar Association, and the Federalist Society, and serves on the Executive Board of the Federal Bar Association’s Dallas Chapter.

• Experience

Himstedt has secured temporary injunctions in trade secret disputes, obtained emergency relief against the City of Dallas in litigation over its short-term rental ban, represented collegiate athletes in NIL disputes, and handled copyright and AI-related misappropriation cases.

SESSION 1 – Collecting the Buyout: Enforcing Liquidated Damages Against the Departing Athlete | 2:30pm – 3:30pm

This session examines the emerging body of law governing liquidated damages and buyout clause enforcement in college athlete NIL and revenue-share contracts, with particular focus on the University of Georgia’s $390,000 claim against Damon Wilson II and the highly publicized University of Cincinnati v. Sorsby litigation. Attorneys will learn how courts evaluate the enforceability of athlete buyout provisions under traditional two-prong liquidated damages doctrine, how structural challenges—unconscionability, term-sheet ambiguity, choice-of-law conflicts, and employment classification—threaten enforcement, and how to draft and litigate these clauses effectively with an eye toward enforceability. Attendees will leave with a practical framework for counseling schools, agents, and athletes on early termination exposure before, during, and after the transfer portal window.

BREAK | 3:30pm – 3:40pm

SESSION 2 – Suing the Rival School: Prosecuting the Tampering and Tortious Interference Claim | 3:40pm – 4:40pm

This session examines how a university or NIL collective can build and prosecute a tortious interference claim against a rival school that tampers with a contracted athlete. Using Wisconsin v. Miami as the blueprint case, attorneys will work through each element of tortious interference as applied to revenue-share agreements, the procedural and jurisdictional obstacles unique to school-versus-school litigation, and the evidentiary challenges created by layered tampering through agents and collectives. Attendees will leave with a practical litigation framework covering jurisdiction, damages theories, discovery strategy, and the NCAA regulatory overlay that runs parallel to civil enforcement.