Florida Gator QB signee wants release after $13MM NIL deal falls through

BleedGopher

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Per ESPN:

Florida quarterback recruit Jaden Rashada requested a release from his national letter of intent Tuesday night after a $13 million name, imagine and likeness deal fell through, according to multiple reports.

Rashada's future had been in doubt since he failed to enroll at Florida last week, sending signals that something was amiss. He flipped his commitment from Miami to Florida in mid-November and formally signed with the Gators on Dec. 21.

But his arrival in Gainesville was contingent on a four-year, $13 million NIL deal he signed with the Gator Collective, a person familiar with the situation told The Associated Press on condition of anonymity. The Gator Collective is an independent fundraising arm that disburses money to student-athletes in all sports. The financial backing fell through, however -- the Gator Collective terminated the binding agreement -- and left Florida coach Billy Napier to scramble to try to get Rashada to campus.


Go Gophers!!
 






Word has it the folks at Gator Collective were making promises with money they didn’t have and when they went to donors to ask for money the donors were blindsided / had no idea how much was being offered.
 
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Money talks and we all know what walks.
As Slab has written, someone at FL promised the kid the moon but did not have the $$$ in hand to fulfill the promise.
The only people going to benefit from this are the attorneys litigating this mess.
 

This is a sure sign that NIL is turning into a shit show!
Fools Gold. All smoke and mirrors. Just BS so they didn’t have to put in a real, equitable system to pay all the players something extra.

My personal experience is that when most anyone starts throwing out outrageous numbers or acts like Tobin Leach should be interviewing them, it’s usually horse droppings.
 
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Have a feeling this won't be the last time we see messes like this involving these collectives. Not hard to see this coming at all given the crazy sums of money being tossed around at high school recruits.
 




Kid should be free to walk. Florida will argue that it was an independent that was offering the money not the University, but we all know the reality. Kid picked them because of money, no money no reason to stay. I don’t like this because now you are looking at players that think they are bigger than the team but this is what NIL has brought. At the same time, life changing money? Who wouldn’t want it!
 


Kid should be free to walk. Florida will argue that it was an independent that was offering the money not the University, but we all know the reality. Kid picked them because of money, no money no reason to stay. I don’t like this because now you are looking at players that think they are bigger than the team but this is what NIL has brought. At the same time, life changing money? Who wouldn’t want it!
Releasing him from his letter of intent sets a dangerous precedent though. In theory these NIL deals are independent of the school (we all know the reality). So if you start releasing kids from their signed letter of intent because some third party collective fell short of their promises.....
 

Wait .... I thought you're only allowed to do NIL deals after you're enrolled at a school?

Or at the very least, that NIL deals, or the promise of them, are not allowed to be part of recruiting?


What a joke. I would absolute deny the release. If he won't keep his commitment, then he can just sit out of college football for a year. 🖕
 


Per ESPN:

Florida quarterback recruit Jaden Rashada requested a release from his national letter of intent Tuesday night after a $13 million name, imagine and likeness deal fell through, according to multiple reports.

Rashada's future had been in doubt since he failed to enroll at Florida last week, sending signals that something was amiss. He flipped his commitment from Miami to Florida in mid-November and formally signed with the Gators on Dec. 21.

But his arrival in Gainesville was contingent on a four-year, $13 million NIL deal he signed with the Gator Collective, a person familiar with the situation told The Associated Press on condition of anonymity. The Gator Collective is an independent fundraising arm that disburses money to student-athletes in all sports. The financial backing fell through, however -- the Gator Collective terminated the binding agreement -- and left Florida coach Billy Napier to scramble to try to get Rashada to campus.


Go Gophers!!
The kids got a law suit against who ever promised him the $$. Hopefully a lawyer will convince him to sue.
 

Interesting part of the story:

The situation could have long-term ramifications for Napier and the Gators. Rashada's representatives could file a lawsuit against the Gator Collective and maybe the athletic department.

I get why they could go after the collective for not coming through on financial promises but I wonder what grounds they would have for going after the Florida Athletic Department?

The idea of offering a high school recruit 13 million is just insane to begin with.
 

The kids got a law suit against who ever promised him the $$.
I hope this does not hold true, legally. I hope there is plenty of fine print in the agreement that allows the collective every right to do this.

Whining in the "court of public appeal" should not get to get you your way.
 

Interesting part of the story:

The situation could have long-term ramifications for Napier and the Gators. Rashada's representatives could file a lawsuit against the Gator Collective and maybe the athletic department.

I get why they could go after the collective for not coming through on financial promises but I wonder what grounds they would have for going after the Florida Athletic Department?

The idea of offering a high school recruit 13 million is just insane to begin with.
Yeah, that is very interesting.

I have no idea what legal mechanisms exist to support it ... but guessing something along the lines of "the Florida Athletic Department made promises to my client that NIL deals would be guaranteed with his commitment, and so they lied to him ..."
 

What the what what?
My source for the following, where I am quoting from the source, it is note as (per source)-

My premise is that the NCAA knew they were screwed -
  1. after losing two lower court decisions (per source)
  2. and knew that it was highly likely that the SC would uphold the lower courts' decisions.
  3. they were also aware of pending legislation in several states and went about to lobby that legislation so it would be an NIL model vs. pay for play.
  4. the NIL model removes them from being the administrator of that program.
  5. allows them to bogusly, IMO, cling to a notion of amateurism.
  6. MOST importantly they don't have to put in any of their own money.
The timing detailed from an excellent summation (per source) I found online, shows the NCAA was playing Chess while everyone else was playing checkers. Just like at the carnival ring toss where you can win the ginormous bear and everyone is mezmized by them - very few win those bears, just like very few athletes will make real cash off of this.

The just F'ed the players one more time with thier BS. They are a corrupt, venal organization and I will love when they finally die.

Where do you think the current legal situation came from?
Summation -

The NCAA’s decision on name, image, and likeness was announced one day before laws in more than a dozen states were set to take effect that provided the same standards as the new policy.(per source)
(My comments - magically one day or was this coordinated, so they are still running the show dominate the news cycle).

The decision also came weeks after a unanimous Supreme Court decision in NCAA v. Alston that found the NCAA cannot bar colleges from making education-related payments to college athletes. The decision affirmed two previous rulings by lower courts that held that such actions by the NCAA were in violation of the Sherman Antitrust Act.(per source)
(My comments - Ruh Roh").

"The NCAA is not above the law," Supreme Court Justice Brett Kavanaugh wrote in a June 21, 2021, opinion. "The NCAA couches its arguments for not paying student athletes in innocuous labels. But the labels cannot disguise the reality: The NCAA's business model would be flatly illegal in almost any other industry in America."(per source)
(My comments -Tongue lashing from a justice and by announcing before the state laws went into effect, they can say, wink wink, we fixed and get your filly robes off our anti-trust exemption.

Sure, this is a bit Michael Claytonish, but when you're talking about the type of cash the NCAA makes with March Madness and a Anti-trust exemption to boot, nothing is beyond the pale.
 
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Word has it the folks at Gator Collective we’re making promises with money they didn’t have and when they went to donors to ask for money the donors were blindsided / had no idea how much was being offered.
Sounds like the promise Colorado made to Prime.
 

Interesting part of the story:

The situation could have long-term ramifications for Napier and the Gators. Rashada's representatives could file a lawsuit against the Gator Collective and maybe the athletic department.

I get why they could go after the collective for not coming through on financial promises but I wonder what grounds they would have for going after the Florida Athletic Department?

The idea of offering a high school recruit 13 million is just insane to begin with.

^
I believe I read the biggest deal so far has been $8M over 4 years for a five star (correct me if wrong) so $13M for a relatively lighter-recruited four star should have set off some alarm bells. $9M wasn’t enough? I suspect there was some bad faith ”negotiation” with some unsophisticated parties and the collective never intended to deliver the money. The goal was get the kid to sign, worry about consequences later. The contract probably has some weasel clauses but in Florida, who knows. Netflix special coming.
 

OK, fair enough, does seem like some bad faith things going on.

All the same - I still say stick it to the kid.

Sick of this buying recruits with NIL crap. Expose it all, blow it up.
 

OK, fair enough, does seem like some bad faith things going on.

All the same - I still say stick it to the kid.

Sick of this buying recruits with NIL crap. Expose it all, blow it up.
Florida will release him because it won't be worth the hassle to keep him committed knowing he will never play there and will just transfer.

As for exposing the whole NIL system....there is nothing to expose....everyone knows what is going on already.
 

Florida will release him because it won't be worth the hassle to keep him committed knowing he will never play there and will just transfer.

As for exposing the whole NIL system....there is nothing to expose....everyone knows what is going on already.
They know that NIL collectives are committing fraud, essentially?

That seems new to me.
 

NIL is a two way street. You're getting paid .... but you can also just as easily get screwed over. (Talking the POV of the players)

Is this really how you want to get paid?

Notice how not a single professional league in the world uses this model?
 




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