There's been a lot of noise in the first 36 hours since Washington quarterback Demond Williams Jr. announced he was going to transfer out of Montlake.

Williams has said he's transferring, Washington has said they are going to fight it. There's talks of lawsuits and talk about how this whole situation could very well change college sports as we know it - or as we are getting to know it.

With some help from the Seattle Times, we've realized that this will probably reach a fairly simple conclusion, though getting there might be ugly.

Here's what we know and what we can interpret:

Yes, Williams signed a contract with the Huskies to return to the program. He's clearly going to breach that contract, but that doesn't mean he needs to play football at Washington in 2026. And frankly, given what's transpired, would the Huskies really want him back anyways?

Washington says that they aren't entering Williams in the portal and they are under no obligation to help him find his new school. That's true. Williams is also under no obligation to officially enter the transfer portal at all.

Per the Times:

It does say that UW is not obligated to place an athlete into the transfer portal or to assist them in transferring. But the transfer portal, despite its name, is not some magic tunnel to another school. It’s just a list of athletes who want to transfer. Athletes can transfer — just like any student — without entering the mythical portal.

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Putting yourself in the portal publicizes that you are a free agent and allows for other coaching staffs to openly recruit you. If you already know where you want to go, then you don't need to enter the portal essentially, because you can just unenroll from one school and enroll in the other.

However, if you already know where you want to go, then you've likely already had conversations with other schools, and that's illegal if you're not actually in the portal.

Washington fears that happened in this case. 

Well, the school can't force Williams to play for them, and the school can't force him to stay on campus, either. What they can do is haggle over money.

Williams signed an approximately $4 million deal with Washington. If he's already been paid some or all of that money, then the school can fight to get that back for breach of contract, and they can cease any future payments. Furthermore, Washington has it in writing that they own Williams' NIL rights moving forward.

If another school wants to acquire them so Williams can get paid, there will be a financial cost to that. If Washington really wants to dig in and not relinquish them, it could prohibit Williams from getting NIL money at a new school, but then he could just get paid through an outside marketing deal.

Washington is already hosting other quarterbacks for on-campus visits.

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