NIL has been re-shaping up to the college football reality in the weirdest way possible. If you still don’t believe it, look at Darian Mensah, the recent Duke transfer who bagged a whopping $8 million to commit for two whole years at the Blue Devils. A $4 million annual average is making the world turn its heads as it arguably marks Mensah as the highest-paid player in college football history. But what made him so appealing to the market? Let’s take you through the journey of the ex-Tulane quarterback.

If you look back and study the trend, you will find that the average rate for a top-of-the-market quarterback like Cam Ward or Riley Leonard, who left Duke for Notre Dame, was half this amount. You clearly see what an NFL inflation can do within a year. But come on, you can’t deny that it takes someone special to draw such big money. It’s not everybody’s cup of tea. Mensah has been a rare breed. His unprecedented rise from oblivion to the ultimate infamy has been one of the captivating narratives in college football.

Tulane has a knack for producing great quarterbacks over their 120 years of history. Buy nobody can match up to what a 6 ft 3 kid from California has done. In his debut season as a starter, the former prized recruit from San Luis Obispo, Calif., has led the team to a top-tier 9-2 record. This season, the legend in the making challenged his own numbers and made it for 2,723 yards and 22 touchdowns with only six interceptions. On the top, he led the Green Wave to a 9-5 overall mark and a 7-1 record in conference play. Be it a touchdown-to-interception ratio, the passing accuracy rate, or the yards per completion, Mensah was second to none. He has exceeded the expectations of coach Sumrall in every move. In a word, Tulane never really had to regret offering the kid a scholarship as the only FBS school.

He honed his craft as a rookie at St. Joseph High School, sitting in a pretty remote, off-beat corner of the central region coast of California. When he hit the portal as a high school recruit, he had only two offers on his table from Idaho State and Lindenwood than Tulane. The former Blue Devils’ head coach, Willie Fritz, recognized the intangibles of Mensah more than his stat. He identified the leadership ability, the extremely calm and composed aura, and the eye for detail in a budding star and knew they had the next big thing of the offense in their hand. One year down and the boy turned into the most expensive player that could burn the bank with the biggest deal from a reputed ACC conference.

But from another perspective, some areas trigger a bigger money growth for the schools to afford it on starts like Mensah. I mean, the California native surely did their homework to surge as a splendid star, but he is also a beneficiary of a perfect NIL reality. The enactment of the House settlement rule spared the schools to use their money quite handsomely with their athletes. But, still, the money was way up for the Duke to flip Mensah because he was determined to return to Tulane if it’s not something extraordinary out of the chart on his table. 

Darian Mensah wasn’t sure about leaving Duke unless the money rolls up

The Blue Devils had to go beyond their way to land someone who had no shorts of offers and also whose option to continue his rolling tenure with the old school looked great.

‘‘100 percent want to be here. My offensive coordinator [Joe Craddock], that’s my guy. What we’ve done and the connection we’ve built are almost unbreakable. No, it is unbreakable. … And this staff, the way they are, Coach Sumrall especially — if you can play, you’re going to play. That goes for all positions. And so that’s huge when you’re recruiting kids who aren’t highly rated but have a chip on their shoulder. This is the place to be because you can come and earn it, just like I did,” Mensah said back in November.

In recent weeks also, Mensah and his agent, Noah Reisenfeld, evaluated the best-case scenario is he returns to Tulane unless something magical happens. Duke coach Manny Diaz came up with the deal of a lifetime and gained command of the headlines for a week or beyond.

It remains to be seen how the historical deal will pay off for the Blue Devils and Darian Mensah in the future.