Major League baseball had Curt Flood; collegiate athlete NIL hopefuls have Matt Sluka.
The college football world is still reeling from the former UNLV quarterback’s splash on Wednesday, when he announced he was leaving the UNLV football program after helping it to a 3-0 start. The reason – being shorted on his Name, Image and Likeness (NIL) deal. The New York Post reported the Holy Cross transfer was shorted $88,000 from his promise of $100,000.
“We have no idea what the hell happened,” the QB’s father, Bob Sluka, told ESPN.
So, the younger Sluka took matters into his own hands and quit the team, electing to redshirt in order to preserve eligibility to play another season at another school. Sluka is taking a stand saying, “If you don’t pay me my money, then I’m not playing.” It’s a much bigger, uglier version of Keyshawn Blackstock, the Arkansas football lineman, apparently sitting out a fall camp practice because of an NIL payment issue.
That is a huge blow to UNLV head coach Barry Odom, the former Arkansas defensive coordinator. He has jump started the Runnin’ Rebels program with the help of some key Arkansas transfers, to begin the season 3-0 and move into the Top 25. By early afternoon, UNLV running back Michael Allen had also announced he is quitting the team and will redshirt in hopes of hitting the transfer portal and getting more snaps.
“Expectations for opportunities unfortunately were not met & I am excited to continue my football career,” he said on a social media post.
By the end of Wednesday, two more players announced redshirt decisions – USC defensive tackle Bear Alexander and Mississippi State receiver Creed Whittemore. It appears that getting playing time may be more at the root of what is behind the sit-outs of these two. College administrators and coaches are watching nervously, perhaps wondering if other dominoes will fall on their own team soon.
Arkansas Football Player Has a Message
For a hot minute, it looked like the UNLV duo might be starting a movement in sparking other collegiate athletes to also take a stand against their employ… err, I mean athletic departments.
Given the way a few dominoes seemed to be falling on Wednesday, it was natural for many college football fans to wonder if someone on their team may be next to opt out.
Any players who weren’t getting as many snaps as some expected would make sense as potential candidates here. On this Razorbacks team, one such player is junior running back Rashod Dubinion, whom Sam Pittman also announced was suspended this week for undisclosed reasons.
Well, those wondering if Dubinion is all Hog or not got a resounding message posted to “X” on Friday afternoon:
Those do not come across as the words of a man who’s itching to hit the transfer portal. Indeed, this statement of team loyalty only backs up what Dubinion said last November about missing college football without the transfer portal.
Following a MLB Pioneer
Many will remember Curt Flood, but not for being a solid performer for 15 years. He is not known for being a three-time All-Star and hitting .300 for his career. No, Flood’s piece of baseball lore is that he refused a trade in 1969, which he eventually took to the U.S. Supreme Court. That action was unsuccessful, but it did lead to backing by fellow players and resulted in fighting baseball’s reserve clause and establishing free agency.
The Runnin’ Rebels players may not be as heroic as Flood but their willingness to fight UNLV and bail out and move on seemed like it would cause other athletes to do the same. There are probably other cases where football players are not getting what is promised to them but are too afraid to challenge the booster or athletic department.
“As long as NIL collectives exist in their current form, with practically no rules, standards, oversight or transparency on the deals they make with players, the UNLV-Sluka dispute is undoubtedly going to be the first of many that blows up publicly in the middle of a season,” USA Today’s Dan Wolken wrote.
There had been hints of tensions along these lines in Arkansas football circles. Razorback walk-on Kyle Thompson published a BOAS piece in July chronicling his first-hand experiences with NIL in the Hogs’ locker room. Based on what he’d seen, it doesn’t seem like he’d be surprised if one day one of teammates were to follow the UNLV duo:
“I have personally seen some NIL checks come in late and players try to opt out of lifting weights and practicing until they get their money. This is what you call a cancer to the team. Yes, it might be frustrating to get paid late, but when you’re getting paid the large amounts that some of these players are getting paid, while also getting an education, how can you complain at all?”
“I think most college athletes are grateful for NIL, but at the same time, they often become so accustomed to having it, they become greedy, ungrateful and don’t realize how good they actually have it.”
You just can’t blame the UNLV players or any of the others, who will eventually leave their teammates. Just like you can’t blame Flood. They are looking out for themselves, but only in a system that allows them, too.
Don’t hate the player, hate the game
I saw several social media posts from ‘Joe Six Pack’ fans criticizing Sluka for giving up on his teammates and coaches. I guess you’d be OK if your kid transferred to a school across the country for a six-figure payoff only to be shorted … allegedly? Nah, I don’t think that would sit too well with you, and it shouldn’t. It isn’t Sluka’s fault that athletes now are being treated like professional athletes. He had a standout career at FCS Holy Cross, and wanted to cash in like so many other kids do.
While former UCLA star basketball star Ed O’Bannon fought in court for NIL rights for student-athletes, I don’t think he ever envisioned a day where a booster would back up a Brink’s truck to a player’s front door and dump a pile of cash. O’Bannon wanted royalties from the video games in which he and other NCAA basketball players were featured, and a piece of the powder blue UCLA jerseys that were selling with his No. 31 on them.
Former University of Iowa women’s basketball player Caitlin Clark used the NIL as intended. She inked national endorsement deals with companies such as insurance mogul State Farm and sporting goods giant Wilson. Those deals became very lucrative for the Des Moines, Iowa native. She also declined to take any money from Iowa’s NIL collective because she wanted more of those funds to go to others.
Initially, boosters were paying players to endorse products and make social media posts for compensation. Then at some point, large cash payments were dispersed, and some athletes didn’t need to offer their services in return. Remember Arkansas football player Trey Knox’s deal with PetSmart? That deal was made on the first day NIL went into effect on July 1, 2021.
Regulation is needed
Wednesday’s news is just another example of how wild NIL has become. Yes, players should be paid. O’Bannon is a real pioneer fighting for current and future athletes, and now there is a class-action lawsuit that would pay damages to past players and fund the payment for players in all sports. It still must be approved by a federal judge, but that could either add some structure to the scene or add even more confusion.
Still, rules need to be made to protect players, schools and boosters in these contract dealings. In some of these cases, it’s hard to distinguish how much say-so the athletic program has in paying the player vs the booster or business owner.
There is also a matter of possibly just making athletes professionals and paying them salaries and a cap. The situation has already escalated nearly that far, so this idea isn’t as far-fetched as some may think. In fact, Dan Woklen thinks doing away with the charade and making college players full-fledged employees is the only way to ultimately resolve the problems that this undefinable netherworld between actual professional and amateur sports keeps producing.
At least if the athletes were pros, there could be rules made regarding contracts and the validity of those deals. I honestly never thought I’d be writing about college players signing pro contracts to represent an athletic program, but here we are.
It’s a sure bet that Wednesday will be remembered in NIL lore as will Sluka. History was made just as it was in 1969.
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