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

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They should honor his release. Got him there under false pretenses. Might stink for the Gators....but it's partly their fault. They should know what kind of promises are being made...and whether they are legitimate or not.
 


Gophers_4life said:
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 ..."
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If the NCAA has any teeth left, it would jump on that like flies on stink!
 


So savior Florida QB - How does it go "If it sounds too good to be true"...... Fill in the rest.....
 

If Florida releases the player from his Natl Letter of Intent - then that could be seen as evidence of a quid pro quo - in other words, that his recruitment was contingent on a 'pay for play' NIL deal.

from a legal standpoint, Florida probably has to take the point of view that the player committed to play football, and any outside deals he may have made are not binding on the school.

Otherwise, Florida would essentially be admitting that they violated the rules on NIL - shaky as they may be.

the player's only recourse may be to sue for breach of contract, and see how that flies in court.
 

short ornery norwegian said:
If Florida releases the player from his Natl Letter of Intent - then that could be seen as evidence of a quid pro quo - in other words, that his recruitment was contingent on a 'pay for play' NIL deal.

from a legal standpoint, Florida probably has to take the point of view that the player committed to play football, and any outside deals he may have made are not binding on the school.

Otherwise, Florida would essentially be admitting that they violated the rules on NIL - shaky as they may be.

the player's only recourse may be to sue for breach of contract, and see how that flies in court.
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It could also be seen as the kid tells them he got duped by some other assholes and the school isn’t a jerk and they let him go.
 

A_Slab_of_Bacon said:
It could also be seen as the kid tells them he got duped by some other assholes and the school isn’t a jerk and they let him go.
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Gotta believe that is how they would try and spin it. I am sure Florida will do everything possible to make sure that they are not connected to the collective (at least in any way that can be easily proven).
 



MNVCGUY said:
Gotta believe that is how they would try and spin it. I am sure Florida will do everything possible to make sure that they are not connected to the collective (at least in any way that can be easily proven).
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Kid also got what he wanted from the school. There isn’t much reason for him to burn them … it wouldn’t help him at all.
 

MNVCGUY said:
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.....
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Somebody had cold feet after looking at the QB signee closeup?

Imagine if a highly touted QB signed for 12 million dollars and he is a dud.

Does that mean that the secret donors can pull the plug anytime, or are they stuck paying what they promised?

Some lawyers are going to make a career out of NIL litigation
 

I'm kind of shocked at how some people here seem to be against the kid for signing a deal for 13 million dollars. Are you mad he was offered that much? Are you mad about NIL and are celebrating how poorly it is exposed through this kid? Do you think it's great he was served with some sort of karma for flipping from Miami and then getting screwed over? I don't get how anyone would side with boosters offering false amounts and backing out of a contract, if it was in fact signed. The schools/NCAA have been screwing the athletes out of money forever and now people want to pile on a kid promised life changing money and accepting it? It's just a weird take IMO.
 

I'm A Maroon 2! said:
I'm kind of shocked at how some people here seem to be against the kid for signing a deal for 13 million dollars. Are you mad he was offered that much? Are you mad about NIL and are celebrating how poorly it is exposed through this kid? Do you think it's great he was served with some sort of karma for flipping from Miami and then getting screwed over? I don't get how anyone would side with boosters offering false amounts and backing out of a contract, if it was in fact signed. The schools/NCAA have been screwing the athletes out of money forever and now people want to pile on a kid promised life changing money and accepting it? It's just a weird take IMO.
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I'm just annoyed that we are pretending to play by rules that don't exist. We were told that NIL was not going to be about paying players to sign letters of intent but we all knew that was a sham.

I have nothing against the kid at all. If someone offered any of our kids $13 million to play college sports at particular school, most people would be on board.

I'm not sure what it would man for college football but they should have just said "paying players is allowed", then Florida wouldn't have to pretend like they weren't involved with the Gator Collective and we could view this (properly) through the lens of a breach of contract.
 



Gophers_4life said:
If he does have hard, good evidence of Florida coaches treating it like a single deal, like a single package .... I mean, that's exactly what the NCAA said is not allowed.

Doesn't the NCAA have to give Florida the death penalty??
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I think the NCAA wiil approach it incrementally, by first giving Bethune-Cookman College a strong warning!
 

And that’s pretty much 100% proof of an NCAA violation.

If the NCAA allows him to back-out of the commitment, how do they not then suspend Florida football?
 

I'm A Maroon 2! said:
I'm kind of shocked at how some people here seem to be against the kid for signing a deal for 13 million dollars. Are you mad he was offered that much? Are you mad about NIL and are celebrating how poorly it is exposed through this kid? Do you think it's great he was served with some sort of karma for flipping from Miami and then getting screwed over? I don't get how anyone would side with boosters offering false amounts and backing out of a contract, if it was in fact signed. The schools/NCAA have been screwing the athletes out of money forever and now people want to pile on a kid promised life changing money and accepting it? It's just a weird take IMO.
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I don’t think anyone is against the kid signing it, more the ridiculous sum that is, that that didn’t raise red flags anywhere as they were going to sign it, and that some schools are still masquerading like this type of offer was actually for NIL. Rashada not at all at fault in my eyes other than the people in his corner not looking out to make sure this was guaranteed in some way before we got to the point where it may hurt his career (ie if he was a possible early enrollee now missing spring ball or if he now
Loses out on other places he could sign)
 

Goldmember said:
And that’s pretty much 100% proof of an NCAA violation.

If the NCAA allows him to back-out of the commitment, how do they not then suspend Florida football?
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I agree. There were two separate and distinct "transactions." One was a #13M NIL deal that Rashada signed with a "collective" that is a business entity legally unaffiliated (in the sense of common control, supervision or direction) with the Univ. of Florida. The other separate and distinct legal transaction was a commitment Rashada gave to the Univ. of Florida to play football in return for free tuition, room and board and other benefits. The third-party collective appears to have defaulted on its NIL contract. The Univ. of Florida has not defaulted on its promises of a free ride education. Rashada's legal recourse is against the defaulting party, the NIL cooperative, for breach of contract, or fraudulent inducement. He might win a big judgment against the cooperative. But he has no recourse against the innocent, unrelated party, the Univ. of Florida, which was not a party to the NIL contract ... and which was not a co-conspirator with the NIL collective in fraudulently inducing Rashada to sign with Florida under a prohibited pay for play arrangement.

Unless, as Goldmember points out, the Univ. of Florida, through its football staff, crossed the only clear limit in the whole NIL fiasco, and became part and parcel of the fraudulent inducement by the NIL collective--making this an open and shut "pay for play" arrangement supervised and perhaps even controlled by the University itself. That is what Rashada is arguing, I am sure. That might even be proved. And it would be bad for the Univ. of Florida ... and pose a very embarrassing situation for the University's brand new President-Designate, former US Senator Ben Sasse (R. Neb.), who is actually a pretty straight shooter.

Everybody knew that as soon as the high concept of name-image-and likeness commercialization got thoroughly polluted by booster/bagmen types, some things would go wrong. The one that occurred to me was naive students not filing tax returns or under-reporting income, failing to pay quarterly estimated taxes, etc. But bagman collectives defaulting on actual contracts to deliver wads of dough to players after the player committed on a pay-for-play (wink, wink) deal? Didn't see that coming. NIL now has a new rule for the big dollar players: Caveat Emptor. Players who, under the pretext of NIL, are selling their services on "masked" pay-for-play contractual arrangements, had better get strong financial guarantees from the bagman collectives--perhaps even personal guarantees of the individual members of the collective. What a soap opera.
 

Something lost in all of this is that these are 17-19 year old kids making these deals. Do you really expect 17-19 year olds to do the due diligence and be smart on contract law and the various ways these deals can fall through? Additionally, there are probably hundreds of these collectives. Do you think they all understand contract law and use the legal counsel they should when signing 6/7/8-figure deals? Of course it’s going to result in a shit show.

These kids can’t hire agents, there are no best practices yet, and all parties are learning on the fly about how they can take advantage of it. The unfortunate part is that schools and collectives will get smarter, but every year it will be a new class of 17-19 year olds (and their families) at the table who haven’t done this before. Unless they are provided some sort of legal advice or agent who has their best interests in mind, the advantage will continue to grow against the kids.
 
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matt said:
Something lost in all of this is that these are 17-19 year old kids that are making these deals. Do you really expect 17-19 year olds to do the due diligence and be smart on contract law and the various ways these deals can fall through. Additionally, there are probably hundreds of these collectives. Do you think they all understand contract law and use the legal counsel they should when signing 6/7/8-figure dead? Of course it’s going to result in a shit show.

These kids can’t hire agents, there are no best practices yet, and all parties are learning on the fly about how they can take advantage of it. The unfortunate part is that schools and collectives will get smarter every year, but it will be a new class of 17-19 year olds (and their families) at the table every year who haven’t done this before. Unless they are provided some sort of legal advice or agent who has their best interests in mind, the advantage will continue to grow against the kids.
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That’s my concern.

Until there’s someone involved who can be an agent with the kid’s best interests in mind (at least as far as navigating contracts and understanding goes)…. not sure how much good we’re doing.
 

it does seem that the Dinkytown Athletes group in MN is trying to do things the right way. from all accounts, this is a legitimate NIL operation, with players being compensated for their name, image and likeness.

granted, it's a lot smaller scale than the big collectives, but they are trying to help athletes by providing some extra compensation. hopefully there are still a few people out there who appreciate honesty.
 


I'm A Maroon 2! said:
I'm kind of shocked at how some people here seem to be against the kid for signing a deal for 13 million dollars. Are you mad he was offered that much? Are you mad about NIL and are celebrating how poorly it is exposed through this kid? Do you think it's great he was served with some sort of karma for flipping from Miami and then getting screwed over? I don't get how anyone would side with boosters offering false amounts and backing out of a contract, if it was in fact signed. The schools/NCAA have been screwing the athletes out of money forever and now people want to pile on a kid promised life changing money and accepting it? It's just a weird take IMO.
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For me, I have no sympathy for him because it wasn't a legit NIL deal. Bryce Young doing the Dr Pepper commercials was a legit NIL deal. This kid tried to get involved in pay for play and it didn't work out. Well, it was never supposed to work out like that, so tough cookies for him.

Do you actually know if there was a contract?
 

A_Slab_of_Bacon said:
That’s my concern.

Until there’s someone involved who can be an agent with the kid’s best interests in mind (at least as far as navigating contracts and understanding goes)…. not sure how much good we’re doing.
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I actually think they can have an agent specifically for NIL reasons but that agent can't represent them from a professional sports standpoint. How many actually go this route...I have no clue.

But yeah, I am sure there are a lot of parents and other people out there working on deals that may or may not end up being legit. I would bet there are also a lot of false promises or bait and switch situations to entice kids to sign.
 

matt said:
Something lost in all of this is that these are 17-19 year old kids making these deals. Do you really expect 17-19 year olds to do the due diligence and be smart on contract law and the various ways these deals can fall through? Additionally, there are probably hundreds of these collectives. Do you think they all understand contract law and use the legal counsel they should when signing 6/7/8-figure deals? Of course it’s going to result in a shit show.

These kids can’t hire agents, there are no best practices yet, and all parties are learning on the fly about how they can take advantage of it. The unfortunate part is that schools and collectives will get smarter, but every year it will be a new class of 17-19 year olds (and their families) at the table who haven’t done this before. Unless they are provided some sort of legal advice or agent who has their best interests in mind, the advantage will continue to grow against the kids.
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No one says you have to take an NIL deal. You can just take the free tuition, room and board, and there ya go.

Just like no one says you need a helmet when riding a motorcycle (I think?). But if you choose not to wear one, don't go complaining to Harley Davidson when you scramble your brains.
 

A_Slab_of_Bacon said:
That’s my concern.

Until there’s someone involved who can be an agent with the kid’s best interests in mind (at least as far as navigating contracts and understanding goes)…. not sure how much good we’re doing.
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Do you think any of our Gopher athletes have anything to worry about? I don't. I see dinkytown athletes as the right way to do this.

So maybe other recruits will see how simple and straightforward and LEGIT that our collective is, and be more intrigued than these southern collectives?
 

GopherTheJugular said:
For me, I have no sympathy for him because it wasn't a legit NIL deal. Bryce Young doing the Dr Pepper commercials was a legit NIL deal. This kid tried to get involved in pay for play and it didn't work out. Well, it was never supposed to work out like that, so tough cookies for him.

Do you actually know if there was a contract?
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It is pretty telling when the recruit wants out of their commitment because the supposed non affiliated deal turns out to be bogus. Tells you where his motivations are.

And it is a shame that pay for play deals are being labeled as NIL deals when they are not. Casts NIL in a negative light which is unfortunate because NIL is a very good thing for athletes.
 

GopherTheJugular said:
Do you think any of our Gopher athletes have anything to worry about? I don't. I see dinkytown athletes as the right way to do this.

So maybe other recruits will see how simple and straightforward and LEGIT that our collective is, and be more intrigued than these southern collectives?
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I don’t know if any gopher athletes have anything to worry about.

How would any of us know?
 

PhiloVance said:
The kids got a law suit against who ever promised him the $$. Hopefully a lawyer will convince him to sue.
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Only if there was a contract. The kid has zero without a contract. There is more to the story yet to be revealed. Not sure how an NIL is promised before enrolling in school.
 

gopherjay said:
Only if there was a contract. The kid has zero without a contract. There is more to the story yet to be revealed. Not sure how an NIL is promised before enrolling in school.
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A "NIL" deal is promised before a kid enrolls in school in the same way all the old under the table pay for play deals would happen to get kids to commit somewhere. They just have a way to hide it out in the open now as opposed to having to be secretive about it.
 

A_Slab_of_Bacon said:
That’s my concern.

Until there’s someone involved who can be an agent with the kid’s best interests in mind (at least as far as navigating contracts and understanding goes)…. not sure how much good we’re doing.
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It’s pretty tough to ever get both your own and anyone else’s interests aligned 100% in almost any professional transaction. There’s usually an expertise differential that can be exploited for personal gain (eg generating billable hours for nonsense). We’re all at the mercy of the ethical makeup of the individual/professional we elected to do business with. Do you feel lucky? Bottom line is we’re on our own to a great degree and have to be self-advocates. Tough ask for an 18 year old or their parents.
 

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