It appears an undefeated college football team ranked in the top 30 of the AP Poll just lost its starting quarterback ... because of an NIL dispute.

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GophersInIowa said:
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I have no idea who is telling the truth with the UNLV and Sluka story, but this statement is absolutely BS.

We all understand that he was given his scholarship and we all understand it's against the rules (and potentially the law) for UNLV, itself, to offer money. That said, we all know it's happening all of the time. It's the status quo.
 


WoodburyTim said:
The UNLV sports collective said they put every one of their deals in writing. Maybe an asst. coach offered 100k but I am dubious. He was the 32nd ranked QB in the portal. Seems like a lot of a mid level QB. And why didn’t he get this in writing? It sounds like everyone else is.
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I'm a hundred years old and I still don't get some stuff in writing that I should. You wanna trust people. You'd like to think you could trust a coach.
Like Bob says...get it in writing. My experience however is who is going to enforce what's in writing? This instance, you are dealing with a school...you probably have recourse.

Lets say you got it writing...you are buying x, y, z equipment...itemized and listed. The guy owns multiple stores. He switches older, more beat up shitty equipment, of the same model numbers you were buying. Remedy that after the fact with a jerk.
Many instances where something in writing is really difficult to remedy. Ya, they screwed you, now what? Attorney fees will eat a lot of your money and if you win, you gotta collect it somehow. That'll likely cost more money if you were lucky enough to win and it often takes a very long time...when they sell their house or die or something way down the road. You better have the better attorney for this money you are spending to remedy the situation.
Do business with honest people. How do you find them? Do enough deals and you kinda figure it out but you still burned. Life is hard.
Contracts help but they are not a magic solution.
 


and now a statement from "Friends of UNLV Collective"

We want to address the recent developments surrounding Matthew Sluka and his decision to redshirt for the remainder of the year.

To clarify, there were no formal NIL offers made during Mr. Sluka's recruitment process. Additionally, Friends of UNLV did not finalize or agree to any NIL offers while he was part of the team, aside from a completed community engagement event over the summer.

at Blueprint Sports and Friends of UNLV, we take our commitments very seriously. We would like to emphasize that we have upheld all Friends of UNLV contracts this season and have not defaulted on any agreements with Mr. Sluka. Our commitment to supporting Rebel student-athletes remains unwavering and we are dedicated to maintaining the integrity of our programs.

We wish Mr. Sluka all the best in his future endeavors.
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to recap: Sluka's NIL representative (or agent if you prefer) says an assistant Coach offered Sluka $100-grand in NIL. the UNLV collective says there were no formal offers. the school says all obligations were met.

either someone is deliberately lying or this is a misunderstanding of colossal proportions.
 


short ornery norwegian said:
and now a statement from "Friends of UNLV Collective"

We want to address the recent developments surrounding Matthew Sluka and his decision to redshirt for the remainder of the year.

To clarify, there were no formal NIL offers made during Mr. Sluka's recruitment process. Additionally, Friends of UNLV did not finalize or agree to any NIL offers while he was part of the team, aside from a completed community engagement event over the summer.

at Blueprint Sports and Friends of UNLV, we take our commitments very seriously. We would like to emphasize that we have upheld all Friends of UNLV contracts this season and have not defaulted on any agreements with Mr. Sluka. Our commitment to supporting Rebel student-athletes remains unwavering and we are dedicated to maintaining the integrity of our programs.

We wish Mr. Sluka all the best in his future endeavors.
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to recap: Sluka's NIL representative (or agent if you prefer) says an assistant Coach offered Sluka $100-grand in NIL. the UNLV collective says there were no formal offers. the school says all obligations were met.

either someone is deliberately lying or this is a misunderstanding of colossal proportions.
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It is the same thing that happens at my house anytime I try to confront my kids about something that got broken....

None of them did it....:)
 

gopherdudepart2 said:
This is starting to look more like pro sports than college. Why even have the enrollment rules and scholarships and call them student athletes if all it is going to be is Salary's and pay disputes. This guy basically quit after 4 games.
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Plus there are mechanisms in place to handle breach of contract situations. A pro player can't just quit a team without incurring penalties, fines and potentially the ability to go elsewhere. This has got to be the dumbest setup in all of pro / semi-pro sports, and the NCAA has only themselves to blame for not getting out in front of this in the first place.
 

short ornery norwegian said:
and now a statement from "Friends of UNLV Collective"

We want to address the recent developments surrounding Matthew Sluka and his decision to redshirt for the remainder of the year.

To clarify, there were no formal NIL offers made during Mr. Sluka's recruitment process. Additionally, Friends of UNLV did not finalize or agree to any NIL offers while he was part of the team, aside from a completed community engagement event over the summer.

at Blueprint Sports and Friends of UNLV, we take our commitments very seriously. We would like to emphasize that we have upheld all Friends of UNLV contracts this season and have not defaulted on any agreements with Mr. Sluka. Our commitment to supporting Rebel student-athletes remains unwavering and we are dedicated to maintaining the integrity of our programs.

We wish Mr. Sluka all the best in his future endeavors.
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to recap: Sluka's NIL representative (or agent if you prefer) says an assistant Coach offered Sluka $100-grand in NIL. the UNLV collective says there were no formal offers. the school says all obligations were met.

either someone is deliberately lying or this is a misunderstanding of colossal proportions.
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So they have contracts and he must have never signed one. Was it just a coach saying too much and then the player never following up on it before he officially transferred there?
 




Border Gopher said:
I've been contemplating pulling a Crawford and punting at my advanced age. I've crossed UNLV off the list
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Can you get any semblance of a spiral on your kicks? If you can, this has potential. Or were you planning the 41 yard end over end variety??
 

UNLV's running back transfer from NC State also said he was redshirting. Fourth leading rusher....says its about playing time, not NIL though.

Dang..back to back home games against Fresno and Syracuse on FS1. I think the Raiders stadium wouldve been pretty filled.
 

MNfootballfan said:
Absolutely - Get a salary cap, come down hard and punish 'illegal money' - essentially NIL.

Make it a step further. Free transfer after your second season and after you graduate. It is sad, but once you are at a school there should be at least a 2 year commitment. How do. you even build a roster when you could legit have a complete turnover every year.

Or I'll take it a step further.
- Get rid of redshirting (medical redshirts allowed still)
- Give all players 5 years of eligibility
- Players can transfer anytime they want (semester break, summer, etc) but each transfer costs you 1 year of eligibility.
- Do 1 of the following 2: If you transfer you are not eligible for NIL at your new school or if you are Bucky Irving and Oregon's NIL pays you $1,000,000 that same NIL collective has to pay Minnesota's NIL the same amount - sort of like compensatory picks in the NFL.

I know fully that their are laws and rules that are currently in place that prevent some of this stuff with NIL, but I truly feel they need to do something to make it fair. The reason why the NFL is so wildly popular is every team has an equal chance - it doesn't matter if you are in crappy Green Bay or Buffalo or in a billion dollar stadium in NFL you are given an equal chance to win. The parity in the league is what makes it fun.
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With all due respect, that will never happen. The law now says you can't prevent student athletes from profiting from their NIL.
 

FredCoxRocks said:
With all due respect, that will never happen. The law now says you can't prevent student athletes from profiting from their NIL.
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Pay them a salary. That can have a salary cap. NIL can be what it was intended to be - players profiting from doing promos and whatever hell else they do with their likeness that is outside their normal salary. The problem is calling this garbage NIL, because it isn't NIL. It is unregulated salaries, or pay to play, under the guise of NIL.

I haven't seen one damn ad, radio spot or anything else featuring Darius Taylor, Max Brosmer or any other swinging d'k from the team on it. That is true NIL. Not this bullshit mascarading as NIL.
 



Bob_Loblaw said:
I have no idea who is telling the truth with the UNLV and Sluka story, but this statement is absolutely BS.

We all understand that he was given his scholarship and we all understand it's against the rules (and potentially the law) for UNLV, itself, to offer money. That said, we all know it's happening all of the time. It's the status quo.
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I'm just shocked McMurphy didn't work into his tweet that all of this makes it likely UNLV will pursue Fleck as their new head coach after the conference title games. He appears to be on PJs or PJ's agent's payroll.

The sad thing is both things can be true and this is bad. Bad for the kid. Bad for UNLV, bad for the MWC, bad for college football. Bad for college athletics.

Scenario where everyone is telling the truth:
* Asst Coach tells him they'll arrange NIL to the tune of $100k
* Kid believes it, doesn't get it in writing.
*Asst Coach doesn't have the authority to do that, or NIL said no and he never informed the kid
*Kid says "where's the money?"
*University say what money. We can't pay you. We have nothing to do with NIL.
*Kid announces on social media he's leaving
*University rushes to react to look better, keep the NCAA out if their kitchen, try to prevent more players from doing the same
*Fans, the media, etc. rushing with their Hot Take pointing fingers without having enough information.

It's lose lose lose.

The kid loses
UNLV loses
The fans lose

Regardless of what the truth really is.
 



All of this was transparently predictable. CFB is less cool than it used to be - just straight up. Players are also less cool I think just due to their need to maximize money during age 18-22. What a nightmare. These cats are already glamorized on campus and now doing so with hundreds of thousands of dollars more than any of their intellectual peers (actually most CFB players are dumb as pie). What an unpleasant world where many people that are unlikable also have a ton of money with no attached obligation.

Many of the things that made CFB enjoyable before are gone.
 

Some guy said:
They can’t implement a salary cap. That would be illegal
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It’s illegal as it’s written now, but isn’t that part of what the NCAA is trying to get implemented in order to bring some sense of control and parity into it? I’d be all for some way to level the competitive advantage to a degree. Is this it? Not sure, but something to end this Wild West bleep show would be nice.
 






NotAFanOfBecky said:
It’s illegal as it’s written now, but isn’t that part of what the NCAA is trying to get implemented in order to bring some sense of control and parity into it? I’d be all for some way to level the competitive advantage to a degree. Is this it? Not sure, but something to end this Wild West bleep show would be nice.
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There isn’t a salary cap in any industry that isn’t collectively bargained, that I’m aware of.
 


caliGopher said:
I'm just shocked McMurphy didn't work into his tweet that all of this makes it likely UNLV will pursue Fleck as their new head coach after the conference title games. He appears to be on PJs or PJ's agent's payroll.

The sad thing is both things can be true and this is bad. Bad for the kid. Bad for UNLV, bad for the MWC, bad for college football. Bad for college athletics.

Scenario where everyone is telling the truth:
* Asst Coach tells him they'll arrange NIL to the tune of $100k
* Kid believes it, doesn't get it in writing.
*Asst Coach doesn't have the authority to do that, or NIL said no and he never informed the kid
*Kid says "where's the money?"
*University say what money. We can't pay you. We have nothing to do with NIL.
*Kid announces on social media he's leaving
*University rushes to react to look better, keep the NCAA out if their kitchen, try to prevent more players from doing the same
*Fans, the media, etc. rushing with their Hot Take pointing fingers without having enough information.

It's lose lose lose.

The kid loses
UNLV loses
The fans lose

Regardless of what the truth really is.
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I think that’s actually like the likeliest scenario. If that’s how it played out, the coach made an offer thst he could not fulfill and the player relied on that promise, I don’t blame him for leaving.
 

WoodburyTim said:
The NCAA is hamstrung by the courts, undercut by the schools that formed it and mocked by the kids they tried to help. What are they suppose to do?
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100% this. Great post.

The NCAA cannot, legally, do pretty much anything. People blame the NCAA because it’s some amorphous entity ruining sports when in truth it’s the courts and schools.
 

Tonight there were some clips of Odom's radio show on the news. His message is that the team is moving on with the QB's that they have. Odom did not show himself to be overly concerned about the depature.
 


Bob_Loblaw said:
No one would. It's an awful way to do business. I'm just saying that it's still a contract, proving it is just difficult. Oral agreements do have obligations to pay, it' s just difficult to prove the contract.

As far as an attorney taking a case based off a disagreement about an oral agreement, attorneys take them all the time. Those cases typically come down to circumstantial evidence which can be extremely powerful.
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It would have to be an extremely unusual set of circumstances and a “friendly” jury that buys the story, dislikes the defendant. I’d guess most complaints/cases would either be refused by attorneys on the face of it or laughed out of court for obvious reasons.
 

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