Steve Sarkisian on Matthew Sluka situation: 'When you make an agreement, you have to follow through'

Former UNLV quarterback Matthew Sluka‘s decision to step away from the program and redshirt three games into the season has become one of the major talking points of the week in college football. Sluka and his representation claim the Rebels football program did not uphold its NIL guarantees that were made to him prior to transferring in from Holy Cross this offseason.

The Texas Longhorns football program has adapted and thrived in the evolved NIL era of college athletics. And on Thursday, head coach Steve Sarkisian was asked for his opinion on Sluka’s situation with UNLV.

“I think ultimately when you make an agreement, you have to follow through,” Sarkisian said. “Again, I don’t know specifics. I think whenever agreements are made, I don’t care if we go to revenue sharing, whatever it is you have to follow through, and that’s both parties.”

There’s undoubtedly a massive disconnect between Sluka’s side of things and UNLV’s. Sluka’s agent, Marcus Cromartie, claimed the program promised his client “a minimum” of $100,000 and only received $3000 to relocate. Meanwhile, UNLV’s NIL Collective claims they never finalized or agreed to any NIL offers with the quarterback.

“This day and age, if you agree to something and then you feel like you’re playing better than what your value is, you just don’t get to take your ball and go home, it doesn’t work like that,” Sarkisian explained. “And so I think that’s some of the growing pains we’re going to go through here, especially when we get into revenue sharing, of understanding that contracts are there and they’re there for a reason as we grow whatever that contract is. And if you do well, then potentially you could earn more as you get into that revenue sharing.”

Revenue sharing with student-athletes has been widely discussed as a potential solution for some of the current problems presented by the lack of structure in the NIL marketplace. It’s currently a space where rules and regulations are minimal, thus creating opportunities for players like Sluka and programs like UNLV to find themselves in their unfortunate current circumstances.

“So again, I don’t know all the specifics of exactly what happened there, and I’m not going to pretend to. I’ve got enough stuff on my plate that I got to deal with. But the point being is that whatever you agree to, you got to follow through,” Sarkisian said. “That’s a relationship, that’s whatever it is, like if you agree to something you got to follow through with it. And you know it sounds like one of those parties, one of the two parties involved, didn’t follow through with with their side of the deal.”

Maybe one day, it will be revealed if Sluka’s party was pursuing more NIL profits retroactively after UNLV’s hot start or if the Rebels led him astray and fell short of the money they once promised him. But at the end of the day, players and programs are only bound by their word and good faith is surely not enough for all parties involved in today’s college sports landscape.