Noah Reisenfeld isn't exactly a household name outside NIL circles, but he's been behind some of the biggest paydays in college sports over the last year. Now he's cutting the cord from his old agency and striking out on his own with a new venture called 21 Sports & Entertainment.
Pete Thamel broke the news that Reisenfeld told ESPN his new shop will represent college athletes plus professional football and basketball players, with plans to add "several known industry figures" soon. Pete Nakos followed with the same story for On3, adding that the agency will operate across the NFL, NBA and NIL markets.
The resume speaks for itself. Reisenfeld negotiated the two-year, $8 million deal that sent Darian Mensah from Tulane to Duke, a contract so massive it made him the highest-paid player in college football history at the time and fueled Duke's first ACC title run since 1962. He's also credited with Anthony Colandrea's NIL deal at Nebraska, another headline transfer-portal domino.
But the launch isn't happening in a vacuum. Reisenfeld is currently suing his former employer, Young Money APAA Sports, over a $2.5 million termination fee he says is wildly disproportionate to what he actually earned there. According to Sportico, he claims the agency treated him like an employee despite his contractor status and even pushed him to recruit NFL players without NFLPA certification. Young Money APAA, for its part, alleges he was steering clients to a rival venture before he ever officially left.
The Mensah saga itself got messy too. After leading Duke to the ACC Championship, Mensah tried to enter the portal again, prompting Duke to sue him over the second year of his contract. That dispute was settled, clearing him to transfer to Miami, where he now has two years of eligibility left to prove the money was worth it.
None of that history seems to be slowing Reisenfeld down. Launching a new agency mid-lawsuit is a bold move, but in an NIL landscape where the money keeps ballooning and the industry keeps reshuffling, betting on his own track record over an old boss's paycheck tracks. Whether 21 Sports & Entertainment can land the next Mensah-sized deal — and whether the lawsuit clouds that pitch to recruits — is the thing to watch next.