ROSEMONT, Ill. — During a phone conversation in December, an assistant coach at UNLV made a pitch to quarterback Matthew Sluka: Come play here and we’ll pay you $100,000.
That is at least according to Sluka’s agent Marcus Cromartie.
Nine months later, with the Rebels undefeated, ranked in the top 25 and, for now, the Group of Five’s favorite to claim a College Football Playoff spot, Sluka is no longer part of the team after he was not paid the promised amount.
The decision sent shockwaves through college athletics at a sensitive time in the industry and on a timely week: The sport’s leaders, the Division I conference commissioners and NCAA president Charlie Baker, are gathering Wednesday and Thursday for their annual meeting at Big Ten headquarters in the suburbs of Chicago.
The gathering unfolds on the eve of an important deadline: On Thursday, the NCAA, power conferences and attorneys must file a brief in the House antitrust settlement, a multi-billion dollar agreement that would usher into the sport direct revenue sharing with athletes and, perhaps more notably given this situation, provide transparency and more binding agreements directly with schools.
Both sides involved in the UNLV situation — Sluka’s agent and UNLV — have spoken. Emerging is a truth not uncommon in this unwieldy and complicated world of college sports where schools are relying on third-parties and boosters to fund football rosters: Not everyone is on the same proverbial page.
“It starts off with full transparency,” said Cromartie, an agent for Equity Sports representing Sluka. “We must allow these negotiations and these written agreements to happen and not put so many regulations on them. The school and coaches are negotiating but you are allowing someone else [collectives] to pay for it, hoping they get the money from boosters. It’s very messy.”
While Sluka was promised a $100,000 NIL deal from coaches, according to Cromartie, the collective made no such agreement, said Rob Sine, CEO of Blueprint Sports, which operates UNLV’s collective. The collective made a one-time payment of $3,000 to Sluka. As recently as last weekend, collective officials were discussing a monthly payment of $3,000 before the quarterback’s decision this week to use his redshirt and leave the team (players can compete in up to four games in a season and still use a redshirt).
“The collective may not have agreed to $100,000 but coaches did,” Cromartie told Yahoo Sports on Wednesday.
The school, meanwhile, released a statement contending that Sluka’s agent made financial demands that it interpreted as a violation of the NCAA rule prohibiting pay-for-play.
“UNLV does not engage in such activity, nor does it respond to implied threats,” the school said. “UNLV has honored all previously agreed-upon scholarships for Matthew Sluka.”
The issue dates back to Sluka’s recruitment.
In December, an assistant coach made the pledge to Sluka, Cromartie said. Sluka’s recruiter was UNLV offensive coordinator Brennan Marion. The quarterback arrived on campus this summer and began competing in preseason camp before Cromartie began to “press” coaches for the $100,000 agreement.
He then turned to the collective, introducing himself to Sine in an email in late August. Sine declined to negotiate with Cromartie as he is not a licensed attorney in the state of Nevada and told him to instead speak directly to the school and coaching staff.
With a year of eligibility left and not having used his redshirt, Sluka decided that, without payment, he would not play.
“If Matt didn’t have another year of eligibility, he would have stayed,” Cromartie said.
All of this transpires with the Rebels in the midst of their best start in years. They are 3-0 having defeated power conference teams Kansas and Houston, host Fresno State this Saturday and meet Syracuse in another power conference game on Oct. 4. They are ranked for the first time since the program moved to Division I in 1978.
Head coach Barry Odom, in his second season, has UNLV in the race for playoff access. The Group of Five’s highest-ranked conference champion gets a berth in the new 12-team field. A dual-threat QB who transferred from FCS Holy Cross, Sluka leads the team in rushing (253 yards) and passing (318) and has scored six touchdowns.
When asked if Sluka would return to the team, Cromartie said, “It’s up to Barry Odom. Matt has been open to wanting to play football, but $3,000 a month for the next four months just isn’t fair.”
Sluka has been removed from the program’s online roster.
The situation shines a light, or a shadow perhaps, on the unruly world of college football recruiting since the implementation of NIL in July of 2021, when the NCAA lifted rules for players to receive compensation from endorsement and commercial deals. As a way to recruit and retain players, boosters are pooling millions of their dollars to pay players what is, essentially, salaries.
The landscape could soon change.
The NCAA and power leagues in May came to an agreement with House case plaintiff lawyers — originally suing over NIL backpay — for a settlement that incorporates an athlete revenue-sharing system. At the core of the agreement are third-party payments from boosters, a concept that power conference leaders are hoping the settlement limits or completely eliminates.
However, at a hearing last month, U.S. District Judge Claudia Wilken, overseeing the case in California, did not grant approval of the settlement, as she took exception to the provision in the settlement that regulates and limits booster payments. House plaintiff lawyers are expecting to file a brief by Thursday to clarify the provision.
The settlement provides a pathway for schools to directly pay athletes millions of dollars as part of contracts with schools and requires third-party or booster payments to meet what is termed “fair market value” standards and pass a new clearinghouse and enforcement process — a system detailed in this Yahoo Sports story.
After meetings Wednesday in Chicago, Baker said he believes the House settlement could prevent such situations as those that happened at UNLV, though he did not comment on the case specifically.
Under the settlement, all deals will be transparent.
“People will know what everybody is getting, which, up until now, you just have to believe whoever says something to you,” he said. “The number of student-athletes that I’ve talked to, who went into the portal under a false promise is pretty significant.
“The big point behind the settlement is to actually put in place a structure that will be transparent where people will have obligations and assignments and responsibilities and accountability. I’ve said for almost a year now, the primary relationship in this should be between schools and student-athletes.”
Current NCAA guidelines are murky on many subjects related to NIL payments, and the association has paused many enforcement matters and investigations over the topic as they are hamstrung by court rulings. For instance, a court injunction in Tennessee permits collectives to negotiate with athletes before they enroll. Some also interpret that ruling as allowing collectives to sign athletes to agreements before they enroll.
Cromartie says Sluka did not sign an agreement before enrolling because of these murky rules.
“People say, ‘Why didn’t they get anything signed?’” he said. “You can’t sign anything until you enroll.”
Meanwhile, UNLV is involved in a separate ongoing saga: The school is at the center of conference realignment in the Pac-12’s attempt at rebuilding the league by poaching Mountain West programs. The Pac-12 has already agreed to terms with five Mountain West schools and has offered UNLV a term sheet.
The school continues to explore possibilities while the Mountain West makes an aggressive retainment attempt. The conference is offering a new version of a membership agreement to its seven programs with sizable signing bonuses. The agreements are binding only if all seven sign.
