Matthew Reichert ’28
Staff Writer
Even after Matthew Sluka transferred to UNLV, a school over 2,000 miles to the west of Worcester, Mass., he remained a topic of conversation at Holy Cross. Sluka, who won four straight Patriot League titles and earned Patriot League Rookie of the Year and Offensive Player of the Year honors in his four seasons as the Holy Cross starting quarterback, remains one of the greatest players in school history.
And Sluka started his FBS career at UNLV similar to the way he played during his four years at Holy Cross. After earning the starting quarterback job, Sluka led the UNLV Rebels to a 3-0 start. In just three games, Sluka ran for 253 yards and a score, while passing for 318 yards and six scores. UNLV was ranked 25th in the Coaches’ Poll, and looked to have a decent chance at making the expanded, 12-team College Football Playoff.
But then, when all seemed right with the world and Sluka looked to be proving himself at the more competitive FBS level, he decided to leave UNLV, and maintain his redshirt eligibility so that he can play at another school next year. Sluka announced his departure on social media the night of September 25. The reason? An assistant coach verbally committed to paying Sluka $100,000 from the school’s collective, but Sluka never saw the money he was promised. The only money he received was $3,000.
The morning after Sluka announced his departure, the story blew up on social media and on all of the major sports networks, including ESPN and NBC Sports. The majority of pundits cited that Sluka’s decision will set the precedent for other student-athletes to follow suit, and leave their respective schools based on unfulfilled NIL promises.
NIL is complicated. The NCAA, headed by former Mass. governor Charlie Baker, bans schools from paying players directly. However, individuals outside of the school can provide money to players for their “name, image, and likeness.” The result: individuals create independent organizations, technically outside the control of the school, to provide money as an incentive for top players to come to their college.
These independent organizations are called collectives. Colleges and coaches work to raise money for these collectives and organize payments to players, but they do not have direct control over the money.
Sluka claims UNLV offensive coordinator Brennan Marion verbally committed to pay him $100,000 from the school’s collective. Payments were not made for months. After UNLV’s win over Kansas, Sluka’s NIL representative Marcus Cromairite went to UNLV head coach Barry Odom asking for this sum of money. Sluka was paid $3,000 to go towards moving expenses.
The collective where the money is supposed to come from said that they had no idea about the offer to Sluka, had nothing in writing, and have only given him $3,000. UNLV itself claims that Sluka demanded more money to keep playing, and they thought this violated the NCAA pay-for-play rules.
So, Sluka was offered money by an offensive coordinator, the head coach claims only he himself can offer this money, only the NIL collective can actually pay this money out, and the administration thinks Sluka asking for this money somehow involves them in an NCAA scandal. Huh? NCAA rules and the newness of NIL makes this all kind of confusing and there are still a lot of questions, more now that UNLV running back Michael Allen is sitting out with a complaint regarding “expectations” for on-the-field opportunities not being met. How much did UNLV, the head coach, and the collective know about the offensive coordinator’s offer? Why did it take so long for this to come to a head? There aren’t clear answers to these questions.
What is clear is that changes are needed. In this situation everyone lost. The coaches lost their starting QB, that QB lost his season, and—though not as much of a focus in ESPN’s coverage—Holy Cross fans lost the opportunity to watch their team’s former quarterback excel at the next level and potentially carry his team to a berth in the College Football Playoff. The NCAA reached a settlement in a lawsuit separate from this incident that will allow schools to pay players directly. If approved, this may streamline communication and help prevent these kinds of problems from happening in the future.
It seems pretty clear that more money is going to be flowing through college sports and with less resistance. Hopefully, this will solve the problem. Then again, maybe the NCAA is just diving deeper into the cesspool. Either way, this is the direction college sports are going and only time will tell where it leads.
Featured image courtesy of USA Today
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