Kamario Taylor Is Returning to Mississippi State on a Reported $7.5 Million Deal: What It Means for Jeff Lebby
Kamario Taylor announced Wednesday that he is coming back to Mississippi State for 2027. The school released his statement. The school did not release the money.
On3’s Chris Low and Pete Nakos reported the deal at $7.5 million, with incentives that could push it toward $9 million, and The Sporting News read that figure as annual. The Associated Press put the base at about $7 million plus incentives. ESPN’s Pete Thamel, who broke the news of the return, reported no dollar figure at all.
So treat the number as reported rather than confirmed. Even at the low end it would be the richest quarterback arrangement in college football.
What He Actually Said
“When I got to Mississippi State, I knew we could build something special,” Taylor said in the statement, which he signed K1. “And I promise you this, big things are ahead for this program. Believe that.”
He added: “I can’t wait to play for Coach Lebby in 2027. He believed in me from day one, and I believe in where he’s taking this program.”
No school official is quoted. Thamel reported that coach Jeff Lebby and athletic director Zac Selmon worked on the deal together.
The Timing Is the Whole Story
The transfer portal is closed. Football now runs a single January window, so Taylor could not have left this week no matter what anyone offered. Locking him up in November lets Lebby sell him to everyone else.
Thamel wrote that the timing “will allow coach Jeff Lebby to build a recruiting/portal class around Taylor.” A source told ESPN: “One of the things we realized is the level of quality players who are intrigued by joining Kamario at Mississippi State.”
That is what the money buys now. A quarterback, and a recruiting pitch built around him.
He Was the Best Story in the Sport Before He Got Hurt
Taylor is a 19-year-old sophomore out of Noxubee County High in Macon, Mississippi, a four-star recruit ranked No. 119 nationally and the No. 11 quarterback in the 2025 class by the 247Sports Composite. He committed in October 2023 under Zach Arnett and stayed after Arnett was fired.
Through six games he completed 104 of 159 passes for 1,460 yards with 17 touchdowns and four interceptions, a 173.0 rating, going 4-2 as a starter. Through four games he was tied for the national lead in passing touchdowns.
Then came turf toe against Missouri on Sept. 26. He played through it, including against Alabama and Oklahoma. Mississippi State shut him down on Oct. 27 and he had surgery two days later.
“Missing the rest of this season is hard to accept, but I know God has a plan,” he said then.
Nick Saban, on College GameDay in September: “He’s the truth and the light. If I was coaching right now, I’d be trying to get Kamario Taylor to get into the portal.”
The Math Is Absurd, and Lebby’s Seat Is Warm
Each school can distribute about $21.3 million to all of its athletes in all of its sports for 2026-27 under the House settlement, according to the College Sports Commission. A reported $7.5 million for one quarterback is roughly 35 percent of that pool. Nobody has broken down how much is revenue share and how much is third-party NIL, which is the only way a figure that size fits.
Eleven months ago, CBS Sports reported that top portal quarterbacks were expected to command “over $3.5 million.” A Big Ten general manager asked CBS the obvious question: “Even if you’re at $25 million, are you really going to put 20 percent of your resources into one player?”
Mississippi State just answered it, and it answered while Lebby sits at 11-23 overall and 3-20 in the SEC across three seasons. The Bulldogs started 4-0 and have lost five straight to fall to 4-5. Lebby is in year three of a five-year deal paying $4.5 million this season, with a buyout around $7.65 million if he were fired Dec. 1.
A school paying its quarterback more than its head coach, while that coach’s seat is warm, is a strange way to run a program. It is also the price of keeping Taylor in Starkville.
A longtime sports reporter, Carlos Garcia has written about some of the biggest and most notable athletic events of the last 5 years. He has been credentialed to cover MLS, NBA and MLB games all over the United States. His work has been published on Fox Sports, Bleacher Report, AOL and the Washington Post.
