Darian Mensah's wish is almost granted but Blue Devils still hold upper hand

Within hours of former Duke quarterback Darian Mensah filing an emergency motion for reconsideration on his temporary restraining order, installed by the court presiding over his legal battle with the Blue Devils, the preliminary injunction meeting has been moved.

However, while Mensah had asked for the meeting to be moved from Feb. 2 to today, it was only moved up four days, to Thursday, Jan. 29.

What does all of that mean in layman's terms? Well, it basically means that neither side has won or lost, quite yet. Here are the biggest moves that the court, the Duke Blue Devils, and Mensah have made so far (in chronological order) and what they mean for the situation:

Duke vs. Darian Mensah legal battle timeline

1. Darian Mensah announces he has entered the transfer portal (it comes out that he wants to leave Duke for Miami)
2. Duke announces it will sue Mensah due to his existing NIL contract (arguing that he is legally obligated to stay with the Blue Devils)
3. The presiding court (in Durham) puts a temporary restraining order (TRO) in place (Mensah cannot enroll at a different university, he cannot play for another team, and he cannot bring in NIL earnings for himself or another program) with a follow-up court date set for Feb. 2
4. Mensah files an emergency motion for reconsideration on the TRO (he argues that he will basically miss the window for joining another program if he doesn't sign by Jan. 23, the same day he filed the emergency motion)
5. The presiding court moves the follow-up court date to Jan. 29 (still past the supposed window put in place by the "other collegiate institutions" interested in Mensah)

So, while the temporary restraining order is still in place, the Blue Devils have less time to prepare their argument that Mensah's leaving Duke is a breach of contract, and therefore should not be legally permitted.

On the other side of things, while Mensah's second court date was moved up as he requested, it wasn't moved up to a date that would prevent him from missing the deadline reportedly set by other teams.

This legal battle between the Duke Blue Devils and Darian Mensah is truly a first of its kind. Sure, just a few days ago, the Washington Huskies sued quarterback Demond Williams Jr. when he tried to transfer, but he happily agreed to stay in Seattle instead of leaving UW.

In Duke and Mensah's case, neither side has happily agreed to anything, and it seems like the legal battle between the two sides is going to drag on for quite a while to come.