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Matthew Sluka’s decision to sit out the rest of the 2024 season at UNLV and use his redshirt year of eligibility unleashed an irrepressible firestorm in the college football landscape.

Drama surrounding player movement isn’t uncommon nowadays. Quarterback Jaden Rashada is suing Florida head coach Billy Napier and the program’s top booster over a botched $13.85 million Name, Image and Likeness deal in 2022, which caused him to transfer to Arizona State, and eventually, Georgia.

USC defensive lineman Bear Alexander recently announced he’d use a redshirt year after three games, planning to sit out the remainder of the season and hit the transfer portal. The news of Alexander’s choice spread less than 24 hours after Sluka’s revelation. Yet, it’s Sluka who has stayed as college football’s top story.

The former Rebels’ quarterback wrote in a Sept. 24 X post that promises made to him upon transferring from Holy Cross to UNLV had not been fulfilled, leading to his exit after just three games. The Athletic reported that Sluka’s father, Bob, and agent, Marcus Cromartie of Equity Sports, claim Rebels’ offensive coordinator Brennan Marion offered them $100,000 via UNLV’s NIL collective, Friends of UNILV, during a January phone call.

Both UNLV and its collective deny that this figure was ever offered. Cromartie found out in a phone call on Sept. 19 with Hunkie Cooper, UNLV’s director of football player development, that all the collective would offer was $3,000 for four months, per The Athletic. Sluka quit the team just a few days later.

The entire situation is a mess. But, so is college football.

The free-for-all environment of college football is beginning to hinder its success. The lack of control over private NIL collectives and the unchecked ability of players to transfer are weakening the NCAA’s power and competitive balance — all of which are on full display in Sluka’s case. It’s just another unmitigated disaster, pouring salt on the wound of a sport in disarray.

“The NCAA fully supports college athletes profiting from their NIL, but unfortunately there is little oversight or accountability in the NIL space and far too often promises made to student-athletes are broken,” Tim Buckley, NCAA senior vice president for external affairs, said in a statement responding to Sluka’s exit.

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Responses to Sluka’s departure were loud from the jump. UNLV linebacker Jackson Woodard and cornerback Cameron Oliver seemed awfully excited about backup quarterback Hajj-Malik Williams suddenly becoming the starter. Former Rebels quarterback Doug Brumfield took a dig at Sluka, too.

Star wide receiver Ricky White III even joked at a press conference last week that Circa — a Las Vegas casino that reportedly told UNLV it would pay off the $100,000 Sluka desired — should give the money to the Rebels’ offensive line instead.

Of course, it was also a prominent talking point on Sept. 28’s edition of College GameDay. Legendary football coach-turned ESPN commentator Nick Saban questioned how Sluka’s decision could help him prosper in the future. Host Rece Davis took a much stronger stance, bashing Sluka for bailing on the Rebels.

“You’ve gotta wear the fastball in the ribs sometimes and go, ‘That was my bad,’” Davis said, wishing Sluka took accountability after the miscommunicated deal.

Some of the ire from UNLV’s side is probably due to negative feelings toward Sluka. Yet, the impassioned national outcry shows this situation’s gravity. It directly highlights college football’s chaotic nature, and how weak regulation of player movement and revenue fosters uncertainty.

NCAA rules state that universities themselves are not allowed to pay players. The reality? It happens all the time. The loophole many schools have taken is using NIL collectives — made up of financial boosters — to fund recruiting for high-level freshmen and transfer players, who have been sanctioned to profit off NIL since the NCAA’s landmark policy enacted in summer 2021.

Opendorse’s annual NIL report revealed that collectives account for more than 80% of the country’s overall NIL market, with 72% of all NIL funding going toward football programs. So, football possesses a clear monopoly in the NIL space, and there’s not much stopping collectives from doing as they please.

In this system, players lose just about every shred of their amateurism. They can choose what school to attend based on their NIL evaluation, similar to free agency in major United States professional sports leagues.

NIL is becoming an increasingly tiered system by position, too, with quarterbacks and skill position players often making the most money. Tennessee five-star quarterback Nico Iamaleava notably accepted an $8 million NIL deal when committing to the Volunteers.

In Sluka’s case, he must have felt $100,000 was a fair price for him in the middle of January, when most top transfer quarterbacks were gone. Sluka’s desire to graduate from Holy Cross meant he started the transfer process late, potentially misleading communication between him and UNLV’s collective.

For a Mountain West school, which averages $300,000 to 500,000 in NIL budget per program, $100,000 seemed pretty steep for UNLV to get Sluka.

Regardless, teams having to build rosters with a budget as players look to maximize their value has created a problematic environment. With no organization for the NCAA to regulate NIL dealings, paired with almost unlimited freedom from players and collectives, disputes like Sluka’s are bound to happen again.

At the same time, James Madison head coach Bob Chesney, formerly Sluka’s head coach at Holy Cross, said he doesn’t think the controversy is a money issue. Sluka had numerous opportunities to leave Holy Cross for six-figure deals, according to Chesney, but the head coach said the quarterback “isn’t a guy to be bought.”

Chesney’s comments leave some questions unanswered. Yet, they point toward the pandemonium of the transfer portal. Teams have attempted to coerce Sluka into joining them for his entire college career. And he’s not alone. The recently-added freedoms of players using redshirts to preserve eligibility and transferring from school to school without having to sit out as a penalty have made the system impossible to control.

USC head coach Lincoln Riley suggested each player should get five years of eligibility — no more, no less — and redshirt years should only be used for injuries. While Georgia head coach Kirby Smart said he envisions similar scenarios as Sluka’s occurring in the future, and that transfer and NIL freedoms have made it difficult for athletic departments to keep their commitments.

Every player and coach across the nation is in jeopardy of leaving their respective program after each season. It goes back to the sport’s lack of amateurism. Young players like Sluka are regularly involving themselves in unnecessary situations that drastically change the direction of their career.

To an extent, the NCAA should be slightly happy with what’s transpired. It now has more motivation to push for rules and legislation to combat problems with NIL and the portal. The pending House v. NCAA antitrust suit could also let schools directly pay athletes, eliminating the secrecy of collectives.

But now there’s more leeway for the College Student Football League to take shape. On Oct. 1, a group of administrators and executives called College Sports Tomorrow proposed robust changes to the current Football Bowl Subdivision layout.

CST believes the CSFL would have better infrastructure in NIL and the transfer portal, and favors implementing a more centralized player movement system. It would take significant agreement from the NCAA and its member institutions, though, for this league to form.

But if most of those involved are profiting, then why would the system ever change?

The NCAA doesn’t care about protecting players. Collectives don’t care either. And players don’t care about the latter two entities. Everyone is in it for themselves. If no serious regulations are imposed on the transfer portal and NIL collectives going forward, the NCAA’s structure will risk becoming more disorganized. Still, the pure greed that goes hand-in-hand with college football already makes it appear too far gone to be saved.

UNLV players and coaches will surely go into Friday night’s game against Syracuse feeling like it’s back to business as usual after Williams led the Rebels to victory the week prior. But that’s not how they should feel. Mid-season controversies like Sluka’s are becoming typical business in today’s era of college football, and will continue to weaken the NCAA until a new governing body takes over the sport.

Cooper Andrews is the Managing Editor at The Daily Orange, where his column appears occasionally. He can be reached at ccandrew@syr.edu or on X @cooper_andrews.

Published on October 3, 2024 at 12:54 am