iStockphoto / © Jerome Miron-Imagn Images
The LSU football team lost out in a bidding war for transfer quarterback Brendan Sorsby to Texas Tech. Details of that pursuit are now being made public.
The Tigers proved that the college football salary cap is meaningless. They attempted a workaround in order to pay the passer top dollar.
Documents: LSU proposed to QB Brendan Sorsby a $3.5M NIL guarantee thru its MMR partner.
In a fascinating window into QB bidding wars, schools are using corporate sponsors to exceed the cap with lucrative promises that haven’t yet passed the clearinghousehttps://t.co/5Or09TFtk9 pic.twitter.com/pOztmpsOK2
— Ross Dellenger (@RossDellenger) January 7, 2026
Who is Brendan Sorsby?
The college football passer was considered one of the top quarterback options on the transfer market this offseason. He entered the portal after spending the last two seasons at Cincinnati.
He initially signed with Indiana as a three-star high school recruit but left after a coaching change. With the Bearcats, he blossomed into a star.
Sorsby posted back-to-back 2,800-yard campaigns with a combined 45 touchdowns to just 12 interceptions in Cincy. The big-bodied signal caller proved deadly in the run game, too, by adding over 1,000 yards and another 18 scores.
That production allowed him to test the transfer market ahead of his final season. He landed immediate attention from high-profile suitors in the portal.
LSU chased his commitment.
The Tigers were one of two finalists in his transfer recruitment alongside Texas Tech. The Red Raiders had an advantage in their back pocket.
Sorsby’s girlfriend signed with the volleyball team earlier in the offseason. That did not shield the school from having to pay market price.
Texas Tech reportedly offered $5 million for one year of play. It appears LSU was in that same price range.
Ross Dellenger of Yahoo! Sports got his hands on some paperwork from the Tigers’ dealings. The terms of Sorsby’s proposal included a $1 million payment directly from the school’s revenue share, and a $3.5 million payment from a third-party multi-media rights partner.
This would’ve allowed LSU to redirect the majority Brendan Sorsby’s contract while taking a minimal revenue share hit. The new model allows for $20.5 million in rev-share to be spent on college football rosters. It was introduced to help even the playing field.
Clearly, it’s failed.
“The whole point of this was for us all to be playing by the same rules, but we are not.”
-Cincinnati football coach Scott Satterfield
LSU is not the only school doing this. They are simply the latest to have negotiation details revealed. In the end, Sorsby spurned the Tigers to join his girlfriend in Lubbock while potentially leveraging that lucrative LSU offer.
The trend seems likely to continue as athletic directors’ cries for collective bargaining go unnoticed.
The uncertainty within the sport’s current landscape is leading some major donors to pull back their NIL support. Some schools might be less reliant on those boosters with corporate sponsors fronting the bill.
The NCAA’s attempt to create competitive recruiting balance, for now, has fallen short.