Does Shedeur Sanders make less than college football quarterbacks? The Texas Tech Red Raiders have a new quarterback, Brendan Sorsby, who is reportedly getting an NIL deal worth $5 million for his one remaining year of eligibility. Some analysts have expressed surprise at the huge amount of money the player is getting at the collegiate level.
For comparison, Dov Kleiman of Front Office Sports noted that Sorsby is receiving more money than Shedeur will earn in his entire four-year NFL rookie contract, which is valued at $4.6 million. Kleiman tweeted on X that, in his opinion, college sports and the NIL landscape seem to have gone out of control, and that more constraints will be necessary for the industry.
“Insane: Texas Tech’s new QB1 Brendan Sorsby will earn more in one season of NIL than the value of Shedeur Sanders’s entire 4-year NFL rookie contract with the Browns. College football needs to fix the NIL,” Kleiman wrote.
Insane: Texas Tech’s new QB1 Brendan Sorsby will earn more in one season of NIL than the value of Shedeur Sanders’s entire 4-year NFL rookie contract with the Browns.
College football needs to fix the NIL 🤦♂️ pic.twitter.com/0eW0BFJZxu
— Dov Kleiman (@NFL_DovKleiman) January 6, 2026
This deal makes Brendan Sorsby the highest-paid single-season quarterback in the short history of NIL, surpassing Carson Beck’s deal to move to Miami this 2025 season. Sorsby has three seasons of experience as a starter, in 2023 with Indiana and in 2024 and 2025 with Cincinnati.
Is Texas Tech Allowed to Pay Brendan Sorsby This Much?
It’s important to say that following the House v. NCAA settlement from 2025, schools do have a revenue-sharing cap, which is enforced through an independent party (Deloitte), which approves all the NIL deals. The limit is currently set at $20.5 million.
This means the Texas Tech Red Raiders are so confident in Brendan Sorsby that they are willing to spend 24.3% of their revenue-sharing cap on a single player. However, the deal might not count towards the revenue-sharing limit if it’s found to be a legitimate third-party NIL deal. That is to say, it isn’t the school using a third party to pay the player to come to play for them. This is something for the clearinghouse (Deloitte) to decide.
The NIL is reportedly being paid by billionaire Cody Campbell, the CEO of Double Eagle Energy Holdings. He is an alumnus of Texas Tech and played college football there under Mike Leach. He holds a double undergraduate major in Finance and Business Economics, and a Master of Science in Finance from Texas Tech. He’s also part of the school’s Board of Regents.
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