The convoluted way college athletes are paid for the use of their name, image and likeness and a dispute between player and coaches over money appears to have cost an undefeated team its quarterback three games into the season.
UNLV quarterback Matthew Sluka has decided to sit out the rest of the season over a $100,000 NIL payment that was promised but never paid after he agreed to transfer to the Rebels from Holy Cross last winter, Sluka's agent told The Associated Press on Wednesday.
''I think there was some kind of breakdown in communication,'' Bob Sluka, Matthew's father, told AP.
Sluka's decision sent shockwaves throughout major college football, where the old rules of amateurism have fallen, leaving schools and the NCAA grappling with how to regulate the way players can be paid. Just how much regulation is part of a $2.8 billion antitrust settlement agreement involving the NCAA and the nation's top conferences that is before a federal judge in California.
Sluka's agent, Marcus Cromartie of Equity Sports, said Sluka was promised $100,000 by a UNLV assistant coach who recruited the quarterback last winter when he agreed to transfer in January.
Both Cromartie and the company that runs UNLV's NIL collective, which would be responsible for paying school athletes, acknowledge there was no signed agreement between the player and the organization for $100,000.
UNLV issued a statement accusing Sluka's representative of making ''financial demands upon the university and its NIL collective in order to continue playing.''
''UNLV athletics interpreted these demands as a violation of the NCAA pay-for-play rules, as well as Nevada state law,'' the school said. ''UNLV does not engage in such activity, nor does it respond to implied threats. UNLV has honored all previously agreed-upon scholarships for Matthew Sluka.''