LSU lined up a $3.5 million NIL offer in its unsuccessful effort to sign former Cincinnati quarterback Brendan Sorsby out of the transfer portal, according to Yahoo Sports’ Ross Dellenger.
Dellenger obtained a copy of the deal, which came from Playfly Sports Properties. The company is an official multimedia partner for the Tigers.
Dellenger explained how the NIL would’ve worked.
NILSU MAX is an independent party that works alongside LSU to help secure NIL deals for athletes. In this instance, NILSU MAX would’ve gone through Playfly to help find marketing opportunities for Sorsby during his time in Baton Rouge.
The offer also represents a way in which schools could attempt to navigate around the revenue-sharing cap that was put into place as a result of the House v. NCAA settlement.
The Advocate’s Wilson Alexander reported on Dec. 1 that LSU officials outlined a plan of spending as much as $30 million to build the roster for Lane Kiffin’s first year at the helm.
“That’s very clearly an institution saying, we don’t give a f–k,” said one member of a Power Four NIL collective to The Athletic’s Stewart Mandel.
Mandel said the general impression around college football was that the cap will unlikely rein in the sums schools are pledging to improve on the gridiron.
Reinforcing that idea, Dellenger outlined how Sorsby isn’t an exceptional case in terms of his market value:
“On the individual level, Sorsby’s contract is likely similar to dozens signed by quarterbacks and other high-profile players, either to remain at their current school or leave for a competitor. One agent recently told Yahoo Sports that the annual compensation for top-end seasoned power conference quarterbacks is as high as $7 million when factoring in incentives.”
All of this is moot because Sorsby signed with Texas Tech anyway. The search for LSU’s next starting quarterback continues.
It’s at least clear the Tigers want to begin the Kiffin era with a bang and will provide him with the necessary resources.