UNLV QB Matthew Sluka officially enters NCAA Transfer Portal after NIL dispute

UNLV Rebels quarterback Matthew Sluka has officially entered the NCAA Transfer Portal following his NIL dispute with the school.

Sluka only spent part of the 2024 season with UNLV, starting at quarterback for three games, all of which were wins for UNLV, before he announced that he was stepping away from the team to redshirt. That was because of an NIL dispute where an agent for Sluka says the school promised him $100,000 in NIL but only paid him $3,000. The school, for its part, pushed back on that claim.

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Amid the dispute, local casino executives reportedly offered to pay the $100,000 for UNLV but the school rejected that offer.

In his three games with UNLV, Matthew Sluka completed 43.8 percent of his passes for 318 yards and six touchdowns with an interception. He’s also rushed for 253 yards and a touchdown. In that stretch, the Rebels went 3-0 and seemingly set themselves up to make a College Football Playoff run.

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Prior to his time at UNLV, Matthew Sluka played for Holy Cross where he became one of the most successful quarterbacks in the school’s entire history. He spent four seasons with the Crusaders, and during that time he threw for 5,896 passing yards for 59 touchdowns to only 15 career interceptions. He also rushed for 3,579 yards and 38 touchdowns.

While at Holy Cross, Sluka was twice a Walter Payton Award finalist and twice selected to the All-Patriot League First Team. In 2023, he was also the Patriot League Offensive Player of the Year. He was also a 2020 Jerry Rice Award finalist. During that same time, his teams found tons of success, with Holy Cross becoming Patriot League Champions in 2020, 2021, and 2022. They were also co-champions in 2023. On top of that, the Crusaders made the FCS playoffs three times.

His former head coach at Holy Cross, Bob Chesney, is now the head coach at James Madison.

Nick Saban reacts to Matthew Sluka redshirt decision

In the immediate aftermath of Matthew Sluka deciding to redshirt, former Alabama head coach Nick Saban shared his reaction to the decision.

“But the way we are right now where everybody’s a consistent free agent, you don’t have any contract, you don’t have any responsibility or obligation to your team, I don’t know the player at UNLV that’s opting out, what kind of value is he really creating for his future, based on what he’s doing. I don’t know that he really is. And how does it affect his teammates? And what’s everybody else’s in the countries teams going to think of what he’s doing? There’s so many consequences and people don’t really ever think about the 40% of the guys who get in the portal who lose their scholarship because they got in the portal and don’t get an opportunity to go someplace else because they thought the grass was going to be greener on top of the septic tank and it’s not,” Saban said.

“And I think the players need protection. You have the NFLPA that you can’t even be an agent unless you can pass certain muster to create value for players. Well, none of the players in college have any protection from anyone. Anybody can be an agent, anybody can be that third party on the street telling a guy what to do, so you don’t even know if he’s getting good information, bad information… I don’t really want anybody to think I don’t want players to make money. But name, image and likeness has kind of turned into pay for play.”