Duke football Darian Mensah NIL amount

The addition of quarterback Darian Mensah to the Duke football team from Tulane drew varied reactions this past offseason. One, it made sense considering that the Blue Devils lost their quarterback, Maalik Murphy, to Oregon State in the transfer portal.

Second, Mensah leaped at a Power 4 conference from the American Conference.

But, the biggest question, as The Athletic points out, is this:

1) Duke has that kind of money? And 2) It’s giving it to … a football player?!

Yes, facts and figures are circulating surrounding Mensah’s transfer to Duke, including the price that the Blue Devils had to pay. While the exact number may never be known, at least two people involved in the program’s signing of Mensah say that the $8 million is the correct figure.

To answer the why, The Athletic spoke to Greg Pritchard, the co-founder of the program’s NIL collective.

“We have aspirations to play at the highest level possible, and that’s counter, maybe, to what people have always thought of with Duke football,” Pritchard said. “So it was very purposeful for us to go after the best quarterback that we could possibly get.”

And, as pointed out in the article, the boosters involved definitely want to see a return on their investment. After the 45-19 loss to Illinois this past Saturday, when Mensah turned the ball over three times, they might be worried that the return might not come.