Highest-paid player in college football history? Transfer QB Darian Mensah's Duke deal is sign of times

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MisterGopher

MisterGopher

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A three-star high school prospect two years ago out of California, Darian Mensah hit the transfer portal with an eye-popping asking price that perhaps best illustrated what name, image and likeness has turned into within college football.

The Tulane redshirt freshman quarterback had a strong year, throwing for 2,723 yards, 22 touchdowns and six interceptions while leading the Green Wave to a 9-4 record. When he entered the transfer portal Dec. 8, amid rumors his coach, Jon Sumrall, could be on the move to another job, it was understandable to expect considerable interest in the young 6-foot-3, 200-pound quarterback. 247Sports ranked Mensah as the No. 7 quarterback and No. 72 overall prospect in the transfer portal.

What followed, however, speaks to a situation where money has flooded in from all corners and players hitting the market have never benefited more. According to sources around college football, Mensah received a deal from Duke that is believed to pay him $8 million over two years. A $4 million annual average would make him the highest-paid player in college football history, unofficially. A year ago, the going rate for a top-of-the-market quarterback like Cam Ward, who went from Washington State to Miami, or Riley Leonard, who left Duke for Notre Dame, was a little less than half that.
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A $4 million annual salary would put Mensah on par or higher than nine base salaries of Power Four head coaches in 2024, according to USA Today's coaching salary database. That includes Big 12-winning Arizona State coach Kenny Dillingham, Vanderbilt coach Clark Lea and the recently-fired West Virginia coach Neal Brown.

https://www.cbssports.com/college-f...qb-darian-mensahs-duke-deal-is-sign-of-times/
 






I personally just don’t believe these numbers. I have first and second hand knowledge on some numbers and what you hear and what they get are not close. Like one player was getting 1 million and it was 150k in actuality. I mean, still a lot of money but that’s a big difference. Maybe it’s different this time but I’m not convinced.

I do know some of these appearances are pretty lucrative. So maybe that’s the difference?
 

unionize the players/make a cba, make them employees, give them a salary cap, all the teams can just have a gm that negotiates contracts, go from there. this is just stupid. the reason it doesn't happen in the NFL (and you can't tell me throwing an extra 4mil outside of the bounds of the salary cap wouldn't be lucrative for guys) is because you've put in guard rails. Mensah, who most people have no idea who he is, does not provide 4mil in "value" to the university for his image. this shit is just irritating and continues to let those, the schools, who are reaping off the backs of players completely avoid having any accountability for it
 


upnorthkid said:
unionize the players/make a cba, make them employees, give them a salary cap, all the teams can just have a gm that negotiates contracts, go from there. this is just stupid. the reason it doesn't happen in the NFL (and you can't tell me throwing an extra 4mil outside of the bounds of the salary cap wouldn't be lucrative for guys) is because you've put in guard rails. Mensah, who most people have no idea who he is, does not provide 4mil in "value" to the university for his image. this shit is just irritating and continues to let those, the schools, who are reaping off the backs of players completely avoid having any accountability for it
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I don’t disagree.

But if Mensah leads Duke to the CFP, that’s worth far more than $4 million. Does fleck provide $6 million in “value” to the university for his image? Once you salary cap players, coaches and administrators will get the same treatment. No one wants that.
 




If true, where is the value proposition for any of this? Duke is not going to compete for National championship.
 

UpAndUnder43 said:
I don’t disagree.

But if Mensah leads Duke to the CFP, that’s worth far more than $4 million. Does fleck provide $6 million in “value” to the university for his image? Once you salary cap players, coaches and administrators will get the same treatment. No one wants that.
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that's not what he's being compensated for though, right? he's being compensated for NIL, PJ is being compensated for the value he provides in being a head coach. If you decide you're paying him for playing, then you can compensate him whatever you as the school/AD/GM decide you want to pay. That's the point of why this system as it is currently being used/allocated is ridiculous.
 

1983 said:
If true, where is the value proposition for any of this? Duke is not going to compete for National championship.
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After seeing SMU get through the ACC, the pathway outside of the B10 and SEC will have upshots who contend to get in every year and it will also happen rarely in those conferences.
 







as a side note, on the new "Pair and a Spare" podcast, they were talking about the new revenue-sharing payments that officially begin in 2025.

teams that participate will be allowed to distribute up to (I believe) $20.5-million in the first year.

the big unanswered question is whether this falls under Title IX or not. If it does not, then the bulk of the money is expected to go to Football and Men's basketball, with other sports getting lesser amounts.

and now the point - Justin Gaard said "he heard" that Gopher Football will be receiving 70% of the revenue-sharing pool at MN.

so - if there are no Title IX concerns, and Gopher Football gets 70% of the total pool, that means $14-million a year in revenue sharing. and players can still receive NIL payments in addition to the revenue-sharing.

if this is true, it might explain the Gophers' recent success in the portal. Ryan Burns said in addition to revenue-sharing, the Gophers are now "competitive" in NIL. Burns said that, if the Gophers don't land a player they want, money will not be the issue going forward.
 

short ornery norwegian said:
if this is true, it might explain the Gophers' recent success in the portal. Ryan Burns said in addition to revenue-sharing, the Gophers are now "competitive" in NIL. Burns said that, if the Gophers don't land a player they want, money will not be the issue going forward.
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For perspective on all these funny numbers getting thrown around The Swarm collective 2023 tax return was recently published as they claim…federal tax-exempt status. Anyway, buried down at the bottom I believe they state they made $2.6M in athlete payments during 2023 (all sports). They took in about $2M in 2022, $2.5M in 2023. 2024? Guessing something less than double digits, something way less. I don’t know.



If you’re into this kind of thing the actual pdf return is accessible at the link

projects.propublica.org

The Swarm Collective Inc - Nonprofit Explorer - ProPublica

Since 2013, the IRS has released data culled from millions of nonprofit tax filings. Use this database to find organizations and see details like their executive compensation, revenue and expenses, as well as download tax filings going back as far as 2001.
projects.propublica.org
 

short ornery norwegian said:
as a side note, on the new "Pair and a Spare" podcast, they were talking about the new revenue-sharing payments that officially begin in 2025.

teams that participate will be allowed to distribute up to (I believe) $20.5-million in the first year.

the big unanswered question is whether this falls under Title IX or not. If it does not, then the bulk of the money is expected to go to Football and Men's basketball, with other sports getting lesser amounts.

and now the point - Justin Gaard said "he heard" that Gopher Football will be receiving 70% of the revenue-sharing pool at MN.

so - if there are no Title IX concerns, and Gopher Football gets 70% of the total pool, that means $14-million a year in revenue sharing. and players can still receive NIL payments in addition to the revenue-sharing.

if this is true, it might explain the Gophers' recent success in the portal. Ryan Burns said in addition to revenue-sharing, the Gophers are now "competitive" in NIL. Burns said that, if the Gophers don't land a player they want, money will not be the issue going forward.
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Heard the same POD and the same thoughts.

It seems like B1G teams in general are doing pretty well pulling guys from other P4. Will we have an advantage because of our higher TV deal or are the majority of P4 going to spend $20 million+. I can’t remember the details.
 

If the program ends up having leeway on how to allocate the revenue sharing do you put most of it into the linemen, or spread it around more. Choose your fighter.
 


short ornery norwegian said:
as a side note, on the new "Pair and a Spare" podcast, they were talking about the new revenue-sharing payments that officially begin in 2025.

teams that participate will be allowed to distribute up to (I believe) $20.5-million in the first year.

the big unanswered question is whether this falls under Title IX or not. If it does not, then the bulk of the money is expected to go to Football and Men's basketball, with other sports getting lesser amounts.

and now the point - Justin Gaard said "he heard" that Gopher Football will be receiving 70% of the revenue-sharing pool at MN.

so - if there are no Title IX concerns, and Gopher Football gets 70% of the total pool, that means $14-million a year in revenue sharing. and players can still receive NIL payments in addition to the revenue-sharing.

if this is true, it might explain the Gophers' recent success in the portal. Ryan Burns said in addition to revenue-sharing, the Gophers are now "competitive" in NIL. Burns said that, if the Gophers don't land a player they want, money will not be the issue going forward.
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Gotta believe that Title IX would not survive the SC right now. Don’t think it’s that much of a risk to just pay the football team and live with the court challenge.

Also not super surprising that the Gophers are a little more competitive in this environment. I’m not giving much but there was no way in hell that I was just gonna give cash to recruits. Will definitely do a DTA subscription though.

We have seen more parity this year than I can remember and the team that’s on top is the one with the biggest sponsor.
 

hello-world said:
Gotta believe that Title IX would not survive the SC right now. Don’t think it’s that much of a risk to just pay the football team and live with the court challenge.

Also not super surprising that the Gophers are a little more competitive in this environment. I’m not giving much but there was no way in hell that I was just gonna give cash to recruits. Will definitely do a DTA subscription though.

We have seen more parity this year than I can remember and the team that’s on top is the one with the biggest sponsor.
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Yeah, to have a stake in the revenue sharing you should be a revenue producing sport. NIL as intended is there for the non-revenue sports but although I am sure there will be people that think they are entitled to it the extra money.....they shouldn't be because they have no hand in producing any of it.
 





GoGophs2275 said:
I know it was 1979, but I bet Eric Dickerson made more than $4 million a year at SMU.
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I bet you're just making a WAG. Consider this from Google:

"AI Overview:

"In 1979, O.J. Simpson was the highest-paid player in the NFL, earning $806,668. Simpson, a running back for the San Francisco 49ers, had previously earned $733,358 in 1978.

"In the 1970s, the average salary for an NFL player was between $20,000 and $60,000. Many players had to have a second job to support themselves and their families."

Why would anyone have paid a college guy $4 million?
 

BronkosGhost said:
It's being reported by multiple news outlets.
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They aren't lies, they are likely (IMO) half truths.

It's getting reported because it generates clicks and the player also wants people to know/think that is his value.

I would guess they cap out at those massive numbers but that they are extremely unlikely to be attainable (for example Win the Heisman, Win National Championship, etc.). I know that's how the numbers have been for a lot of people. It's similar to some of these NFL contracts. If a guy is signed for 7 years and 210 million but only his first three seasons are guaranteed - he's really signed for 3 years and 90 million.
 

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