If you don't know about the Matthew Sluka situation over at UNLV, you will soon, as it's taking over the headlines for college sports. Sluka is a star quarterback for the 3-0 UNLV Rebels, posted on X that he will redshirt and leave the UNLV football team because the promises they made in the NIL were not fulfilled.
— Matthew Sluka (@MatthewSluka) September 25, 2024
NIL is still in the infancy stages of where it needs to be, or as I like to think of it, it's still in the "Wild West." In some scenarios, it's absolutely out of hand. Sluka is not the first recruit to say he was promised something and then it wasn't delivered, but he is the first to do something drastic about it.
Former UNLV QB Matthew Sluka’s NIL representation, Marcus Cromartie of Equity Sports, told ESPN that Sluka was verbally promised a minimum of $100,000 from a UNLV assistant coach for transferring there. None of that money was paid, per Cormartie.
— Pete Thamel (@PeteThamel) September 25, 2024
The trickle effect of this is going to impact every college team in all the major sports, and Kentucky is no exception; I see two ways that this hits close to home.
1. Equity Sports Agency
The first way this matters to Kentucky is that the agent representing Sluka is the same agent representing Wildcat linebacker Jamon Dumas-Johnson. He is one of the top defensive players for Kentucky and has 13 tackles on the season with one interception.
While Dumas-Johnson is represented by Equity Sports, there should be no problems with Dumas-Johnson. The situation with Sluka is vastly different from Dumas-Johnson, and the senior linebacker has shown no indication that his NIL money isn't coming through. The other reality for him is that as a senior, he is looking to make a case to be an NFL Draft pick in next year's draft.
2. NIL Collectives
The reality is that NIL money is often promised in verbal ways; there are no college contracts, at least not in the same sense as the NFL or other sports. There are a lot of handshake deals, and if the money is not actually there, then things can get shady really fast. Stewart Mandel said this about NIL deals, "I’m not sure people realize how often these collectives promise money that they don’t yet have on hand. Then they have to go out and raise it and, shocker, it doesn’t materialize." And, of course, Sluka's deal was a verbal deal.
Sluka’s agent told ESPN that it was a “verbal” promise from UNLV/its collective. Source tells @NBCSports that is accurate and nothing was in writing. https://t.co/PGKUBcPqsb
— Nicole Auerbach (@NicoleAuerbach) September 25, 2024
Kentucky has one of the best NIL collectives in sports, Club Blue. Most of that seems to be focused on basketball; the football side does not seem to be lacking either. Therefore, UK has a lot of money on hand, and the university should not find itself in the same position.
I believe that if we are going to pay players to play college sports, then some form of contract should be signed. This is where things will be headed after the Sluka drama.