Stats: 4 G, 5-of-12, 84 yards, 1 TD, 0 INT; 24 rush yards, 0 TD

Despite limited game experience, Julian Sayin has the potential to be a top-five quarterback on this list by the time the 2025 season is over, thanks to a 5-star pedigree and a talented group of targets in the passing game.

With Jeremiah Smith (76 catches, 1,315 yards, 15 TD) and Carnell Tate (52 catches, 733 yards, 4 TD) both returning at wide receiver, and Purdue transfer Max Klare (51 catches, 685 yards, 4 TD) adding an impact option at tight end, he will have a chance to put up some big numbers.

The post Is Darian Mensah the highest-paid QB in CFB? appeared first on ClutchPoints.

Duke football opened its wallet to land Darian Mensah. The dual-threat quarterback is igniting new enthusiasm for the Blue Devils. With $8 million coming from Duke and now placed inside Mensah’s bank account after transferring from Tulane.

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But is he college football’s richest QB? That major question surfaced ahead of his highly-anticipated Duke debut.

Name, image and likeness (NIL) hands teams leverage to pay athletes including Mensah. Including hitting the millions. Carson Beck is one other transfer who landed a bonkers NIL deal in joining Miami.

But Mensah’s deal is higher than his — and every other QB according to Pete Nakos of On3/Rivals on Thursday.

Which QB’s NIL deal was closer to Duke football’s Darian Mensah?

The dual-threat and college football transfer portal addition helped rewrite the narrative of paying athletes. Nakos dove into Mensah’s massive deal in Durham.

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“He’s now set to be one of the highest-paid players in college football this season as part of a two-year, $8 million contract with the Blue Devils. Mensah is set to be paid $4 million for the 2025 season,” Nakos wrote.

And that’s not all money wise for the incoming QB1 for Duke.

“According to one source, Mensah could max out the $8 million deal up to $10 million with incentives,” Nakos added.

Which QB comes close NIL wise to the Blue Devils’ newcomer? One other newcomer to his school is close to Mensah. But it’s blue chip college football recruiting five-star Bryce Underwood for Michigan. The incoming freshman at Ann Arbor will earn up to $3 million for four years, per Nakos.

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Beck, meanwhile, is raking in up to $3.2 million for the Hurricanes. Dylan Raiola of Nebraska pulled in a similar dollar figure to the new Miami QB.

Drew Allar of Penn State briefly flirted with an NFL Draft entry. But he’ll receive “at least $3 million” in NIL at State College. John Mateer of Oklahoma comes behind Allar — earning between $2.5 million to $3 million after leaving Washington State.

Mensah is wealthy, but also motivated. The Duke QB said he’s playing with a chip on his shoulder this fall — as he’ll represent California’s 805 region in the Atlantic Coast Conference. Which rarely sees talent from California’s Central Coast make their way over to the ACC.

Related: South Carolina football switching from Under Armour ahead of 2026

Related: How much money will Vanderbilt Commodores’ QB Diego Pavia make this season?

New Oklahoma quarterback John Mateer has had no issue winning over his new teammates since transferring from Washington State this winter.

Mateer was recently one of nine college football players to sign an NIL deal with Beats by Dre, but Mateer’s teammates also benefited from his new deal when he gifted them all new headphones after a practice in an epic moment.

Mateer inks new NIL deal with Beats by Dre

Beats by Dre recently signed Mateer alongside other QBs Bryce Underwood (Michigan), Dante Moore (Oregon), DJ Lagway (Florida) and LaNorris Sellers (South Carolina), as well as Alabama wide receiver Ryan Williams, Ohio State safety Caleb Downs, Texas defense end Colin Simmons and Georgia running back Nate Frazier.

A new commercial featuring all the college stars was recently released, including Mateer.

Mateer also got a solo commercial that revealed he might be in the same aura tier as NBA MVP Shai Gilgeous-Alexander.

This is a situation where NIL was used in the way we all expected — a popular athlete appearing in commercials with an endorsement deal. It’s not just a rich booster throwing money at an athlete so they’ll play at their school for one season.

Plus, Mateer did it all right. Football is a team sport, and he knows he needs all those guys in the locker room for success and more of these NIL deals. Mateer paid it forward and surprised all of his teammates with new headphones while using the Sooner Schooner like Santa’s sleigh.

Obviously Mateer’s teammates were appreciative, but Sooner Nation also loved seeing the gesture from their new star.

Read more about OU football

Two days after USC offensive lineman DJ Wingfield saw his preliminary injunction denied in his eligibility suit, another ruling came down across the country. Four West Virginia players were deemed eligible by a West Virginia district court, paving the way for them to suit up for the Mountaineers this season.

Shortly after Wingfield’s denial, Lincoln Riley expressed his disappointment in the situation. When asked about the West Virginia decision, he called out the differing rulings on eligibility cases.

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Speaking with reporters Thursday via Zoom, Riley cited the different decisions in different states as players seek eligibility. His stance was not just about Wingfield’s situation, but also others “in limbo” across the country.

“I’m a little bit at a loss for words on it, to be honest,” Riley said. “I mean, this is where we’re at right now is that your eligibility depends on what state that you’re in and which judge that you get. We just need to stop ourselves just for a second and think about that. We’ve got a national sport that’s run by a national organization, but your eligibility – which has been a huge question mark for so many people – depends on what state you’re in and what judge that you get and what lawyer that you have on in your trial. It’s sad that it’s gotten to this point, to be completely honest.

“Again, I hate it not just for DJ, but for all the different guys out there that were held in limbo for a long time and the lack of direction given by the NCAA. If this was one person trying to game the system and get an extra year, I understand the stance behind not letting them play. Like, the standards are the standards, that’s it. But look how many guys across the country are in this situation. This is not one misunderstanding, this is not one guy trying to game the system.”

Wingfield challenged the legality of the NCAA’s Five-Year Rule, which contends that players are eligible to play four seasons of competition across five years. The decision to file the lawsuit came after the NCAA denied waivers for a final season of eligibility.

In the West Virginia case, the four players – Jimmori Robinson, Jeffrey Weimer, Tye Edwards and Justin Harrington – also took aim at the Five-Year Rule and argued the NCAA is violating antitrust law by counting years spent at a junior college against eligibility. The suit refers to that rule as the “JUCO penalty” and cited the ruling in Vanderbilt quarterback Diego Pavia’s case as a reason the players should be able to play this year.

Lincoln Riley calls for blanket waiver

As he weighed the ongoing eligibility lawsuits, Lincoln Riley acknowledged the amount of changes in college athletics recently. He cited the House v. NCAA settlement, as well as NIL rules, and the impact those shifts have had on athletics departments – adding to the uncertainty around the suits.

With that, though, Riley called for the NCAA to do the “right thing” by granting a blanket waiver to those players awaiting eligibility rulings. He reiterated he’s not just looking out for DJ Wingfield, but also others who are looking for answers on whether they can play this season.

“There were questions,” Riley said. “Nobody really knew what was going to happen and this settlement and NIL. All this stuff going on. We understand that there was some indecision on the NCAA’s part about all of this. I get that. There’s also a lot of indecision for these kids and for us as institutions. And you’ve got guys trying to make decisions in December, January, all that, when none of this was even agreed upon. Now, you’ve got all these guys in this situation, and it’s just hard for me to fathom why we wouldn’t do the right thing and have a blanket waiver to let these guys play.

“Again, it’s not one person. You’re talking about a lot of guys across the country, and for it to come down to what state that you’re in, it makes no sense. It’s really frustrating.”

‘The reality is, these kids should play’

As for DJ Wingfield, Lincoln Riley said the offensive lineman is in good spirits despite his denial and attended practice Wednesday. But he further doubled down on his desire for a national standard when it comes to eligibility rules.

“I know it’s really frustrating for the kid,” Riley said. “He’s been awesome. He came out to practice yesterday. It was great to see him. It’s heartbreaking for these guys – and again, not just a guy playing for us. Like I’ve said, this would impact other teams that we’re going to play against.

“But the reality is, these kids should play. There was too much indecision and too much going on and not enough national direction, and now that we’ve got the state-by-state thing, it’s not good for these kids. It’s not a good look for college football. I surely hope that we get it right because these kids don’t get do-overs.”

College football starts this week.

That is huge news in Athens, Georgia; Columbus, Ohio; Tuscaloosa, Alabama; and Austin, Baton Rouge, Ann Arbor and Norman. But in San Rafael, Tiburon, Novato, and Sausalito, opening day of the college football season finishes a distant second in anticipation to the Fairfax Photo Club Exhibit and the ever popular Read to a Dog day at the Petaluma Library. (Now I’ve done it. My dog Dottie just heard me mention “read to a dog” and now I’ve got to go to her book club with her).

In these parts, Cal and Stanford over the years would occasionally garner a modicum of interest from students and alumni if they seemed to be on the verge of something slightly above mediocrity. Stanford had some Rose Bowl years and Cal did, too. In fact, the Bears have made eight Rose Bowl appearances. Okay, so the last one was in 1959. There are still at least 17 living people who witnessed it.

The Pac-8….then -10….and then -12 had its rivalries that could stir a few people out of their Lazyboy’s. Everybody hated USC, and the Big Game was at least mentioned on occasion at the office water cooler.

But since the demise of the Pac-12 and the start of an influx of NIL (Name, Image, and Likeness) money, interest in college football in the Bay Area has waned to the point that the Stanford Tree and Oskie, the Cal Bear’s affable mascot, both opted to enter the transfer portal.

It is the transfer portal that has — depending on where you live — either grown college football to massive proportions, or killed it. We all live where it’s on life support.

It wasn’t that many years ago that we laughed at an athlete who was getting thousand dollar handshakes from over-zealous alumni. We kidded that they “had to take a pay cut to turn pro.” The joke is now on us. It happens all the time.

Football budgets for the 10 biggest spenders hovers right around the $40 million mark. The difference between those 10 schools and everybody else? They’re nationally ranked. The rich just keep on getting richer.

The trickle-down effect is what galls me more than anything else. If a team like Cal or Stanford does manage to get a player who could lift the program or, at the very least, provide a recruiting edge down the road, he’s gone the next year to one of the big dogs for way more money than the paltry sums that Cal or Stanford can afford.

Here’s an example: Cal will be starting a freshman quarterback named Jaron-Keawe Sagapolutele, who first committed to Cal, was lured away by Oregon, and returned to Berkeley when he realized he would likely not be starting in Eugene. The bottom line is, he’s a big talent and Cal is fortunate to have him. I don’t know how much NIL money the quarterback is getting at Cal, but I’m guessing it’s in the $1 million area.

For the Bears, it’s sizable. For the big spenders, it’s chump change. Arch Manning at Texas this year will have $6.6 million in NIL money. If Sagapolutele is as advertised, what are the odds he’s not in Berkeley in year two?

To their credit, both Bay Area schools have hired what has become the latest addition to a college football staff, the general manager. Yes! Just like the NFL. Both schools picked a highly qualified and motivated person to fill that job: Ron Rivera at Cal, and Andrew Luck at Stanford.

Each starred in football at their school, each went on to star in the NFL, each is respected beyond doubt. Their job: Raise money and deal with agents representing an 18-year-old kid who thinks he’s the next coming of … well, Ron Rivera or Andrew Luck. And then try and keep him on campus. They are both great guys who really care.

And they will try to keep two age-old programs afloat, while swimming in a sea of sharks.

The University of Oregon is the fourth-highest paying university when it comes to NIL money for its athletes. How much has this gotten out of control? The NIL monies at Oregon come to an average of $241,000 per player.

How prevalent you ask, are players headed to the transfer portal? Cal lost 23 players off a team that got to a bowl game, including five running backs and six wide receivers. Stanford likewise lost 25 players to the portal. Cal brought in 25 transfers and Stanford 17.

Here’s how times have changed.

I once did a Stanford-Oklahoma football game in Norman, Oklahoma. It was what we call an Athletic Director’s game. That is, a game agreed to by the visiting AD because of the money the school gets, in exchange for the home team getting an easy win.

I’m not sure how, but Stanford somehow won the game.

My crew and I were sitting in the bar at the airport after the game waiting for our flight home and there were several Oklahoma fans there who, to the number, looked as though they just had put their dog down. We reasoned with them that this was a just a game — the sun’s coming up tomorrow. One Sooner fan who had been somewhat over-served said, “You don’t understand. Your kids are all going back to school and they’re all going to graduate and probably make lots of money. For our kids — this is it.”

Times have changed. A lot of Oklahoma players are making more money now than Stanford kids may ever make. The Sooners are ranked No. 15 in the country. Stanford is picked to finish 17th in the 17-team ACC.

Oklahoma plays its first game next week against Illinois State. They are an overwhelming favorite.

Stanford opens Saturday in Hawaii. They are a two-and-a-half-point underdog.

Welcome to a new season of college football in the Bay Area.

Barry Tompkins is a 40-year network television sportscaster and a San Francisco native.  Email him at barrytompkins1@gmail.com.

Originally Published: August 21, 2025 at 5:37 PM PDT