Cincinnati sued former quarterback Brendan Sorsby in federal court Wednesday, alleging he breached his NIL contract with the Bearcats when he refused to pay a $1 million exit fee after he transferred 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 transferring.
In the complaint, Cincinnati’s attorneys said the quarterback’s representative “advised that Sorsby refuses to pay the University anything.”
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Sorsby 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 Cincinnati Athletics, Brendan Sorsby 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 specific amount for the substantial harm that his breach would cause.
“Cincinnati Athletics intends to enforce that contractual commitment. As stewards of the university’s 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.”
The lawsuit said that Sorsby signed an 18-month NIL contract with the Bearcats that covered the 2025 and 2026 seasons. It was set to expire on Dec. 15, 2026.
The university claims Sorsby notified the football team on Dec. 1 that he was done playing for the Bearcats and wouldn’t compete in their postseason game against Navy in the AutoZone Liberty Bowl on Jan. 2.
Sorsby entered the transfer portal on Jan. 2 and almost immediately signed an NIL deal with the Red Raiders.
The lawsuit claims 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 top-rated quarterbacks in the transfer portal. After playing his first two seasons at Indiana, he started at 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 substantial amount last season, “it did so with the express expectation that it would realize the majority of the benefits during the following season, 2026, after Sorsby’s play developed and his brand grew.”
“Despite the clear contractual obligation to do so, and despite his ability to pay, Sorsby still has not paid the University the $1 million in liquidated damages he agreed to pay,” the lawsuit said. “Sorsby has benefited greatly by the NIL agreement he entered into with the University, along with the University’s sustained efforts to promote him and help establish him as a top collegiate quarterback. Now, the University seeks to enforce its rights under that same agreement and to recover the amount Sorsby is contractually obligated to pay.”
In a statement later Wednesday night, Sorsby’s agent said the QB will fight the lawsuit, calling it “misguided.”
“University of Cincinnati, through its revenue-share structure, paid him $875,800 for a season he fully completed and in that time, he generated millions in value for the program,” Ron Slavin of Lift Management said. “Attempting to recover those funds now sends the wrong message to current and future student-athletes and risks damaging the long-term credibility of Cincinnati football. This is further disappointing given that Brendan parted ways with UC in what was a mutually agreeable manner. The money the university seeks to recover from him is nothing more than an unlawful penalty under Ohio law.”
Cincinnati isn’t the first college athletics program to sue a former player for liquidated damages after breaking an NIL contract and transferring. In December, Georgia sued former edge rusher Damon Wilson for $390,000 in damages after he transferred to Missouri following the 2024 season.
Georgia asked a judge to force Wilson into arbitration to settle the dispute. Wilson countersued Georgia in a Missouri court, alleging the Bulldogs had “weaponized” a liquidated damages clause in an unenforceable way to “punish Wilson for entering the portal.”
Wilson transferred to Miami in January after playing one season for the Tigers.
Duke officials sued former quarterback Darian Mensah on Jan. 20 in an attempt to prevent him from transferring to Miami and to try to enforce the multiyear NIL contract he signed with the Blue Devils.
The sides reached an undisclosed settlement on Jan. 27, allowing Mensah to join the Hurricanes.
