Of course this will happen. It’s just a miracle it didn’t happen sooner.
College football is a sport that still has no clear guidelines governing the market, more than three years after players were finally allowed to monetize their names, images and likenesses.
Without a truly powerful governing body to enforce the minor rules on both sides of the contract, if anyone tried, the offended party could hire a lawyer, go to court, and add a new chapter to the NCAA’s long history of failure. .
Last week, UNLV starting quarterback Matthew Sluka posted that he planned to leave the program after “representations” made to him were “not supported.”
— Matthew Sluka (@MatthewSluka) September 25, 2024
His father, Bob Sluka, told Competitor As of January, the two sides had essentially reached a verbal agreement to pay Matthew $100,000 for his final season of college football. Instead, he was only given $3,000 for moving expenses, and despite his efforts to collect what he was owed, Bob Sluka said he hasn’t since graduating from Holy Cross College this summer and showing up in Las Vegas. receive no further compensation from the UNLV collective.
However, Blueprint Sports CEO Rob Sine said that in dealings with Sluka’s representatives starting on August 29, no mention was made of any money owed, UNLV collectively denied the existence of a deal, and UNLV said it had honored all “agreed-to” offers for Sluka. scholarship”.
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The No. 25 Rebels are moving forward as they host Syracuse on Friday to lead the five-player bracket in the College Football Playoff.
Unfortunately, there are many pitfalls in a rapidly changing, largely lawless system that is evolving from an exploitative Stone Age to a sport that treats athletes, its most valuable asset, fairly.
Eventually, I believe college football will get to something similar to player contracts, which are the ultimate solution to situations like this, set by the schools and adopting mostly standard language. Ultimately, college football will share a portion of its billions of dollars in television revenue with players, ensuring schools have at least some money to give to players.
But it doesn’t have to be you or your program. There are lessons to be learned from this ugly saga.
1. Don’t do anything unless everything is in writing.
Both parties agree that a written agreement was never reached. But Sluka said a verbal agreement was reached with Matthew’s agent and University of Nevada, Las Vegas offensive coordinator Brennan Marion in January, months after Sluka moved from Massachusetts to Nevada.
There are almost no regulations. Every group and every school has different norms.
“In many of the conversations I’ve had, the manager has brought up the issue of money directly,” one player browsing the transfer portal told reporters. Competitor This offseason we conducted an investigation into the inner workings of the NIL. “They’re going to talk about the numbers they’re going to give me for a player at this position based on your recruiting level and how much playing time you’re going to get.”
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No player is more valuable than the starting quarterback, though Sluka still has to win the job over Campbell transfer Haji-Malik Williams, who led the Rebels to a win over Fresno last week State University.
In February, a federal judge in Tennessee blocked the NCAA from enforcing the organization’s laws governing NILs. Sluka arrived at the University of Nevada, Las Vegas in June and began classes on August 26. But he wanted to be a team player, so he kept playing.
Eventually, Skaka realized he was in Vegas and rolled his eyes.
Fair or not, his decision to leave a team chasing a playoff berth just one month into the season will tarnish his reputation in the eyes of many.
No one should make significant changes to their life based on a financial arrangement without a written agreement enforced by an attorney.
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2. Get the right reps.
College football does not have an agent certification process other than some state requirements for agent business, and the quality of agents varies widely.
Sluka’s agent, Marcus Cromartie, divides his time between college and NFL clients, but he reportedly didn’t qualify to operate in Nevada, leaving some around UNLV in conflict with him Hesitant to deal with.
“It’s weird to me,” another agent told Competitor.
It’s unclear why the agents would consider the offensive coordinator’s commitment binding. But it was never officially announced.
“We tried everything. We would accept payment. Anything. They just kept putting it off and to this day we don’t know why,” Bob Sluka, Matthew Sluka’s father, told CNN. Competitor last week.
Get email Competitor Cromartie never mentioned $100,000 in his brief exchange with the UNLV collective.
Former Florida signee Jaden Rashada did get a written contract, but his representatives also allowed the Florida collective to put in writing that it could terminate the contract at any time. They shorted him by more than $13 million. In May, Rashada sued the collective and Florida State head coach Billy Napier.
3. Coach: Know your group.
Coaches can endorse their third-party collectives and engage in dialogue with them, both of which were initially prohibited when the NIL was established in 2021, while collectives emerged as a result of NCAA rule changes.
The most effective schools have good communication between the two, primarily because of budget. Coaches and staff need to know how much money a collective has on hand or how much money can reasonably be raised for a transfer prospect or high school recruit.
Bob Sluka said his son’s agent hopes to meet with UNLV tailback Henkie Cooper following the team’s Sept. 13 win at Kansas State (Hunkie Cooper), who recalled Cromartie saying “that’s the guy who’s avoiding us now about money.”
In a later conversation, Cooper made an offer of $3,000 a month for the next four months and told Slukas to take it or leave it.
In the collective world, $100,000 is not a lot of money for a quarterback, especially a starting quarterback for a top-25 team competing for a playoff spot. UNLV will only be able to offer $3,000 per month for the remainder of the season, showing a clear disconnect between the coach’s vision for his roster and the collective means.
Few coaches make promises they have no intention of keeping. Word travels fast, and there’s no faster way to erode your trust in the current roster and future prospects. Agents interviewed said it was against NCAA rules for members of the coaching staff to discuss players’ financial data. Competitorit happens all the time.
“I prefer to deal with coaches because they’re so out of it. They say, ‘We can get it done.’ “It’s a sense of self — you want to get this done for your position team and your school to show you have the money,” one agent told Competitor NIL investigation shows this offseason.
Whether or not Marion made what he considered a firm verbal offer, Sluka believed it and felt strongly about abandoning the plan. One agent told reporters that negotiations with coaches over the details of an offer are rare. Competitor This week, but at some point between the recruiting process and fulfilling the NIL offer, Slukas and Marion didn’t see eye to eye.
4. Honesty is the best policy.
If there’s no money, the University of Nevada, Las Vegas should explain this to its starting quarterback.
I’ve talked to people around the UNLV program this offseason, and they’ve complained that the lack of NIL support is a big reason why the Rebels haven’t been able to retain starting quarterback Jayden Maiava. State, now the backup to Miller Moss. He threw for more than 3,000 yards and ran for nearly 300 yards in Marion’s innovative Go-Go offense.
Maiava was worth well over $100,000 when she left, a person familiar with the matter said. Competitorbut the lack of support is exactly why UNLV is in the market for a transfer quarterback in the first place.
The situation could hurt the program and hurt Marion and head coach Barry Odom during the recruiting process, although the program denies what happened or the extent of Odom’s involvement.
UNLV said in a statement that it viewed Sluka’s “request as a violation of NCAA pay rules and Nevada law.”
Technically, that may be true, but these NCAA rules were overturned in a Tennessee court in February, and the way college football works in 2024 is that players expect to be paid, especially if they believe they have If an agreement is reached.
Blueprint Sports, which operates the UNLV group, issued a statement saying that “no formal NIL offer has been made to Sluka” and that the group “has not finalized or agreed to any NIL offer.”
It’s true. This would stand up in court and prevent Sluka from taking any legal action.
But that doesn’t address the real issue, which is that he said he was promised money from a coach, but the coach had no agency to provide the money and it didn’t exist in the first place.
5. Carefully consider all your options.
When Sluka issued a statement last week, he chose the nuclear option. His father said he was moving back home to Long Island; his time in the procedure was over.
Sluka’s departure from the team opened the door for him to be called a “quitter.” There is a part of the population that will never see it any other way and will quit their job even if they believe they were promised $100,000 and paid $3,000.
But he has a choice. Might I recommend something more creative?
Since Sluka said their efforts to resolve the issue privately were fruitless, Sluka could explain his situation publicly by posting a video or statement on X. of playoff contenders for the starting quarterback position.
Less than 12 hours after Sluka posted a message announcing his exit, Circa Sports CEO Derek Stevens reportedly offered to pay him $100,000 to resolve the dispute, but the University of Nevada, Las Vegas told Their relationship has gone too far.
By not going public until after the relationship broke off, he did not receive any of the funds he thought he had been promised and, in the eyes of many, failed in a public relations battle.
It’s a tough 1-2 punch, but it doesn’t have to go like this. No matter what happens between now and next season, it’s hard to imagine things getting better on the field for Sluka.
(Photo by Matthew Sluka: Kyle Rivas/Getty Images)
