NIL money is getting thrown around in a big way, and even some under the radar teams are flexing it in the transfer portal
This isn’t your grandparents, or even your parent’s college football. The NIL landscape and the transfer portal have completely altered our perception of this great game, and has reshaped the ideas centered around roster building. It’s basically free agency on the college game now, and is more transparent than it ever has been. When both […]
This isn’t your grandparents, or even your parent’s college football. The NIL landscape and the transfer portal have completely altered our perception of this great game, and has reshaped the ideas centered around roster building. It’s basically free agency on the college game now, and is more transparent than it ever has been.
When both NIL and the transfer portal were introduced, most people thought that the major college football powers would be the one who would benefit most. Bigger brands like Alabama and Georgia would surely dominate the climate and continue to widen the gap between the good and the elite, right?
Over the last couple of years, we have found that thought to be far from the truth. We have actually seen the opposite. Those elite teams are buying good football players, but not nearly to the volume we once thought. Instead, that talent is getting more evenly dispersed across college football and parity is increasing.
One of, and arguably the best example of that, took place this week. Former Tulane quarterback Darian Mensah was viewed as arguably the top signal caller on the transfer portal market. The 6-2, 200-pound passer just put together a really impressive redshirt freshman campaign for the Green Wave. In 13 games, Mensah threw for 2,723 yards, 23 total touchdowns, while completing nearly 66 percent of his passes and throwing just six interceptions.
With three years of eligibility remaining, and a lot of talent to work with, it was believed that Mensah was going to be a hot commodity and land with a huge program. Only part of that was true, seeing Mensah eventually commit to the Duke Blue Devils.
When most people heard that destination, there were some major questions that were answered. And then the price tag finally came out, and things started to become a lot clearer. It was reported that Duke had offered Mensah a 2-year, $4 million contract to sign.
If those numbers are indeed true, it is a great example of just how much different the aforementioned landscape is than most believed it would be. Duke, which is a tremendous university, isn’t known for its football program. It’s a basketball school, and most wouldn’t have believed that the football program had that type of money to throw around.
Yet, here we are. We now have arguably the top portal program opted to sign with the Blue Devils and play in the ACC conference. It’s not something that would have been so nonchalantly predicted in the past, but it’s the landscape we are growing to understand more and more.
