Cincinnati is suing Sorsby over a $1 million exit fee after transferring to Texas Tech

Cincinnati sued former quarterback Brendan Sorsby in federal court on Wednesday, alleging he violated his NIL contract with the Bearcats when he refused to pay a $1 million exit fee following his transfer to Texas Tech.

The lawsuit, filed in the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Ohio, seeks $1 million in liquidated damages, which the school said Sorsby was contractually obligated to pay within 30 days of his transfer.

Cincinnati’s attorneys said in the complaint that the quarterback’s representative “advised that Sorsby refused to pay anything to the university.”

Sorsby has reportedly signed an NIL agreement with the Red Raiders that will pay him between $4 million and $6 million this season.

“In his lucrative NIL agreement with the Cincinnati Athletics, Brendan Sorsby has committed to stay and play for two seasons as a proud Bearcat representative,” the university said in a statement Wednesday. “He also agreed that if he left the university before that time, he would pay the university a specified amount for the serious damage his contravention would cause.

“Cincinnati Athletics intends to fulfill this contractual obligation. As steward of university resources, the Athletics Department has a duty to do so. We thank Brendan for his time at Cincinnati and wish him success in the future.”

Sorsby signed an 18-month contract with the Bearcats covering the 2025 and 2026 seasons. It was scheduled to expire on Dec. 15, 2026, the lawsuit said.

The university alleges that Sorsby notified the football team on Dec. 1 that he was done playing for the Bearcats and would not compete in a postseason game against Navy in the AutoZone Liberty Bowl on Jan. 2.

Sorsby entered the transfer portal on January 2 and almost immediately signed a nothing deal with the Red Raiders.

The lawsuit alleges that Sorsby violated the terms of his NIL deal with Cincinnati when his image appeared on a large digital billboard in New York’s Times Square announcing his commitment to Texas Tech.

Sorsby, a senior from Denton, Texas, was one of the best quarterbacks in the transfer portal. After playing his first two seasons at Indiana, he started for Cincinnati the past two seasons.

In 2025, he completed 61.6% of his passes for 2,800 yards with 27 touchdowns and five interceptions. He also ran for 580 yards with nine scores, leading the Bearcats to a 7-5 record.

Cincinnati claims that although it paid Sorsby a significant sum last season, “it did so with the express expectation that it would realize the majority of the benefits during the following season, 2026, as Sorsby’s play developed and his brand grew.”

“Despite a clear contractual obligation to do so, and despite his ability to pay, Sorsby has not paid the university the $1 million in liquidated damages he agreed to pay,” the lawsuit states. “Sorsby has benefited greatly from the NIL agreement he entered into with the university, along with the university’s continued efforts to promote him and help establish him as a top college linebacker. Now, the university is seeking to enforce its rights under the same agreement and recover the amount that Sorsby is contractually obligated to pay.”

In a statement issued later Wednesday night, Sorsby’s agent said the QIC would fight the lawsuit, calling it “misleading.”

“The University of Cincinnati, through a revenue-sharing structure, paid him $875,800 for the season he completed in full, and in that time, he generated millions of dollars in program value,” said Ron Slavin of Lift Management. “Attempting to recover this money now sends the wrong message to current and future student-athletes and risks damaging the long-term credibility of Cincinnati football. This is also disappointing given that Brendan parted ways with UCLA in a way that was mutually acceptable. The money the university is seeking to recover from him is nothing more than an illegal penalty under Ohio law.”

Cincinnati is not the first college athletics program to sue a former player for liquidated damages after his NIL contract was terminated and transferred. In December, Georgia sued former edge rusher Damon Wilson for $390,000 in damages after he transferred to Missouri after the 2024 season.

Georgia asked the judge to force Wilson to go to arbitration to settle the dispute. Wilson sued Georgia in a Missouri court, alleging that the Bulldogs had “weaponized” the liquidated damages clause in an unenforceable manner “to punish Wilson for entering the gate.”

Wilson transferred to Miami in January after playing one season with the Tigers.

Duke officials filed a lawsuit against former quarterback Darian Mensah on Jan. 20 in an attempt to prevent him from transferring to Miami and trying to enforce the multi-year NIL contract he signed with the Blue Devils.

The two sides reached an undisclosed settlement on January 27, allowing Mensah to join the Hurricanes.