QB Matthew Sluka leaving UNLV over NIL disagreement: What we

• Max Olson, ESPN Staff WriterSep 25, 2024, 01:26 PM ET Close Covers the Big

• 12 Signed up with ESPN in 2012
• Graduate of the University of Nebraska

After leading his group to a 3-0 start, UNLV starting quarterback Matthew Sluka revealed late Tuesday night that he was done playing for the Rebels due to pledges made around his NIL payment that were not fulfilled.Sluka, a Holy Cross transfer, prepares to sit out the remainder of the season as a redshirt and return to the transfer website in December. His sudden decision raises concerns about the nature of his monetary contract with UNLV, how the offer broke down and who eventually bears obligation for an unbeaten team losing its leading quarterback.Here’s what you require to called this story continues to develop: Who is Matthew Sluka?Sluka signed up with UNLV this summer after a decorated profession at the FCS level at Holy

Cross. The 6-foot-3, 215-pound senior was a three-year starter and two-time finalist for the Walter Payton Award, which goes to the top offensive player in FCS. Sluka earned Patriot League Offensive Gamer of the Year honors in 2023 after producing 1,728 passing backyards and 1,247 rushing lawns with 29 total touchdowns.Editor’s Picks

1 Related At the end of the season, Holy Cross coach Bob Chesney and his personnel delegated take control of James Madison and Sluka chose to test his alternatives in the transfer portal. UNLV brought him in after losing beginning quarterback Jayden Maiava, the Mountain West Freshman of the Year, to USC.After three games, Sluka led all Mountain West quarterbacks in hurrying lawns per game and had 253 overall rushing backyards. He threw for 318 yards with 7 total goals and one turnover while leading a Rebels offense that ranks 5th in FBS in rushing.How is UNLV doing this season?Following an outstanding 9-5 launching season, coach

Barry Odom has the Rebels in the hunt

for a bid in the expanded 12-team College Football Playoff. UNLV is off to a 3-0 start with upset wins on the roadway versus Huge 12 programs Houston and Kansas. Sluka powered their win over the Jayhawks on Sept. 13 with a team-high 124 hurrying backyards on 19 brings plus 86 passing lawns and a touchdown.The Rebels rose to No. 23 in the coaches poll this week after their idle week. UNLV and Boise State have become popular choices to make an area in the inaugural expanded playoff. If the Rebels win the Mountain West, they’ll have a strong chance of making the bid.What we know about Sluka’s departure Sluka’s NIL agent, Marcus Cromartie of Equity Sports, informed ESPN that Sluka is leaving the program after he was verbally assured a minimum of $100,000 from a UNLV coach and just received $3,000. His dad, Bob Sluka, informed ESPN they had a spoken contract with UNLV offending organizer Brennan Marion for what they thought was a “sensible, fair number,”even if it was much less than Power 4 programs offered, however payments were repeatedly delayed and no effort was made to formalize a contract with their cumulative for that amount. Sluka was among the leading players in FCS before going into the transfer portal after the 2023 season.

Danny Wild/USA TODAY Sports After UNLV’s win over Kansas, Bob Sluka stated Odom and Cromartie spoke on Sept. 19 and the head coach refused to uphold the agreement, instead offering $3,000 for relocation expenses and asserting that the deal wasn’t valid due to the fact that it didn’t come from him. Sluka’s camp contends they never ever went to Odom looking for more cash, just what they were guaranteed up front. Marion declined to comment to ESPN.Rob Sine of Blueprint Sports, the company that handles UNLV’s cumulative, validated to ESPN that Sluka had no handle writing with the cumulative and stated the collective wasn’t knowledgeable about any pledges to pay Sluka$ 100,000. Sine also verified that Sluka received one $3,000 payment.How can Sluka leave during the season?College football players can not enter the transfer portal at this time, but they can leave

a program whenever they want. The NCAA’s transfer website window does not open till Dec. 9, which is the Monday after championship game games. Sluka will not be able to enter his name into the portal until then and can not join another group to keep playing in 2024. The choice Sluka made is not uncommon worldwide of transfer recruiting. Every year, numerous players decide to move due to differences over NIL value and payments, and there were several instances of players returning to the transfer website this spring to seek more cash from another school.Financial problems aside, his motivation for leaving now is to benefit from the four-game redshirt guideline and play one more college season in 2025. What is the redshirt rule?College football players can gain one extra season of eligibility if they play in 4 games or fewer in a year and take a redshirt season

. The rule was implemented in 2018 and is typically intended for younger players who play limited snaps as backups. The NCAA is presently thinking about extending that four-game maximum to exempt conference title, bowl and College Football Championship game. Sluka played four seasons at Holy Cross and did not utilize a redshirt year. Because he started his profession in 2020 throughout COVID-19, he could take advantage of an extra season of eligibility in 2024. By redshirting, he’ll have the ability to play in 2025. Are NIL conflicts like this common?Issues like these happen all the time however hardly ever spill out into the general public. Quarterback Jaden Rashada taking legal action against Florida coach Billy Napier and others over a stopped working $13.85 million offer is without a doubt the most popular example of a player attempting to hold a school liable for unfulfilled promises, however these concerns occur often in a marketplace where NIL chances can typically be exaggerated throughout the recruiting process.Allstate Playoff Predictor How will Saturday’s top games impact the College Football Playoff go after? What are

the existing chances for the leading 4? The

Allstate Playoff Predictor has the responses. Examine back every week as the odds are updated following that week’s games. The offers that players strike with school NIL collectives are not binding employment contracts.

Gamers and their households or representatives seeking more money from a cumulative than was initially agreed upon is commonplace, particularly if they receive much better deals from other programs. However just as commonplace are circumstances of players making less cash than they expected or were guaranteed, either verbally or in writing.”We’re a hardworking household,” Bob Sluka told ESPN.”To be able to have an athlete like Matt, we do not even truly care that much

about the money. But there is a principle to it. He’s not the first athlete to have this occur. We have actually heard it from a million kids that they do not get their cash. So maybe Matt has to be the poster boy, but we do not want him to. But we’re not going to have Barry Odom simply stand up and state, ‘Eff you, I’m not paying you, get your ass out on the field.'”What does this state about the state and future of NIL?Sluka’s departure from UNLV highlights an uncomfortable concern for all parties at a time when the rules around player settlement will dramatically change.If authorized, your house v. NCAA antitrust settlement will bring on a brand-new period of earnings sharing in college sports starting in 2025-26. Schools will be able to directly pay their athletes through NIL deals up to a limitation, anticipated to be in between $20 and $23 million per school next year with yearly increases.That settlement is presently on hold after Judge Claudia Wilken declined to approve preliminary approval on Sept. 5 and ordered lawyers to “go back to the drawing board”regarding restrictions around third-party NIL payments from collectives.In this procedure of modernizing college athletics, the NCAA has long opposed moving towards a design that considers its professional athletes employees of their school and has actually invested a number of years lobbying Congress for assist with federal legislature to prevent athletes from being thought about employees.What’s next for UNLV?The Rebels will move on with senior citizens Hajj-Malik Williams and Cameron Friel as their top options at quarterback as they enter Mountain West conference play on Saturday against Fresno State.Williams, an FCS transfer from Campbell, has appeared in two games this season and rushed for 88 lawns on 10 carries during UNLV’s 72-14 blowout win over

Utah Tech. He ended up being Campbell’s all-time leading passer with 8,236 yards and 58 goals over his five seasons in the program. Friel has earned 10 starts for the Rebels over the past 2 seasons.Adam Rittenberg contributed to this report

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