The NIL era of college athletics is alive and kicking, and while it’s opened up doors and avenues for student athletes to capitalize on their name, image and likeness, it also comes with many drawbacks.
One of those issues is players claiming they were promised a certain amount of money to join the program and then allegedly not receiving it.
Last year it was former Florida commit Jayden Rashada claiming the Gators lied to him about a $13.85 million deal to flip his commitment from Miami.
Now, UNLV is dealing with something similar. Starting quarterback Matt Sluka, who’s led the Runnin’ Rebels to a 3-0 record has left the team over claims of a failed $100,000 NIL payment that was promised to him prior to him transferring from Holy Cross.
Did UNLV Offer 100K To Transfer QB Matt Sluka and Then Refuse To Pay?
His representatives are alleging that UNLV didn’t hold up their end of the deal, and only paid the QBs $3K for a moving stipend, and $3K per month for four months total. That would still leave them $88K short of the $100K Sluka and his reps are alleging.
Speaking with CBS, second-year Rebels head coach Barry Odom addressed the matter. Odom, who was named Mountain West Conference Coach of the Year in 2023, says Sluka overvalued himself.
“Thought he had a market value higher than he was making here.”
Odom and the Rebels athletic department says this amount was never promised and Sluka is trying to leverage the team’s 3-0 start into an unwarranted and uncommitted payday.
Sluka Redshirting Joined By Running Back
As a result of the alleged deal not coming to fruition, Sluka will now redshirt and retain his eligibility because he didn’t play in four games. It’s the first known situation of its kind in the NIL era to have a player quit in season. Running back Michael Allen joined Sluka in redshirting, claiming that he also didn’t have his alleged NIL deal fell through.
Allen took to social media to say: “After 3 games, I have decided to utilize my redshirt & enter the portal at the end of the season as a RS JR. I’m grateful for UNLV & wish them nothing but success. Expectations for opportunities unfortunately were not met & I am excited to continue to my football career.”
Something’s fishy out in “Sin City” and it seems Iike the Runnin’ Rebels made promises they didn’t keep.