The Matthew Sluka-UNLV situation is going to keep happening unless schools fix it

When UNLV quarterback Matthew Sluka dropped the bombshell Tuesday night that he was leaving the Rebels after three games because of “representations that were made to me which were not upheld after I enrolled,” everyone had an opinion. 

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— Matthew Sluka (@MatthewSluka) September 25, 2024

Either Sluka was a greedy malcontent quitting on his team or a hero standing up to an organization that tried to pull a financial bait-and-switch on him.

You’ll get no name-calling — positive or negative — here. Because we don’t know what happened. And we might need truth serum for all parties involved or a lawsuit that forces the production of documents to get the full story.

What we do know is that this is the first time a starting player has publicly declared that he’s leaving his team midseason over an NIL dispute. And it won’t be the last.

As long as the schools continue to pretend that players aren’t getting paid to play football and continue to back an arm’s-length, middleman-infested compensation model rather than a straightforward employee-employer relationship that would allow for more binding deals, this will keep happening. 

Every time it does, it likely will be because of one of three scenarios.

Scenario 1

The player and the school’s collective agreed to X dollars over a time period. The collective actually paid Y dollars, with Y being a number lower than X.

Scenario 2

The player and the school’s collective agreed to X dollars over a time period. The collective paid X dollars as agreed upon, but the player had some success on the field and decided he now wants Z dollars. Z, of course, is a larger number than X.

Scenario 3

The player and the school’s collective agreed to X dollars over a time period. The collective paid X dollars as agreed upon, but the player had some success on the field and suddenly representatives of other schools are reaching out to the player (or his agent) and suggesting the player could make Q dollars if he redshirts this season and comes to their school next year. Q, of course, is a larger number than X.

We don’t yet know into which bucket Sluka falls. But it’s probably one of these three.

Perhaps his next stop will provide more information. Perhaps he and UNLV’s collective will engage in a he-said/he-said that either provides clarity or further muddies the waters.

What we do know is the schools can make this stop anytime they want. They can stop begging Congress for an antitrust exemption they’ll never get, and they can start working toward a system that provides their teams some security and pays the players for the reason they’re actually being paid. 

Because if they continue with the system that they created, they’ll keep dealing with stories like this one.