Neal Brown on challenges of NIL: 'They pay you to figure it out'

The desire for more rules and regulations surrounding NIL in college athletics was a common topic of discussion prior to college football season starting this fall. But UNLV quarterback Matthew Sluka‘s decision to redshirt three games into the season due to representations not being met by the Rebels brought the matter back to the forefront.

West Virginia head coach Neal Brown was recently asked about the Sluka situation with UNLV and how it relates to his own program. Opening up about how himself and the Mountaineers go about NIL in order to avoid miscommunication and disarray.

“Well, I think you have to navigate it. Navigate it the best way you see fit, I think each situation is unique. I really can’t speak on UNLV just because I wasn’t part of it. I don’t know what their processes are, I feel comfortable with our processes,” Brown said.

“I probably wouldn’t have said that three years ago,” he admitted. “But confident what we’re doing now as far as our processes. We need to continue to raise money, we hadn’t arrived at that yet, we need to continue to do that. But I think our processes are good, and how we make decisions, and how we communicate is good. We don’t have a lot of voices that are involved in the process, but I can’t really speak to them (UNLV), just because I don’t know how they do it.”

There was a clear misunderstanding between Rebels and Sluka, whose agent claims he was offered $100,000 to join the program. A contract that the UNLV NIL Collective denies extending to Sluka during his recruitment and an ordeal that now places the word of one party against another where both suffer consequences.

“But here’s the thing, this is an imperfect system. It’s imperfect and for right now, it doesn’t affect the product. Will it eventually?” Brown asked. “Maybe, I don’t know. We’ve got to get it figured out. I don’t think we have a great system in place right now, but you never hear me sit up here and complain about it just because nobody wants to hear the head coach complain about it. I mean seriously, they pay me a lot of money and they pay you to figure it out. But it’s not a great system, but it is what it is.”

Adaptability is the name of the game for head coaches at every level and in every sport at the college level as they look to navigate the new era of NIL and recruiting. The Wild West where the playbook has changed and the rule book still remains somewhat unknown.

“Nobody’s really clear on them. We got this house settlement that’s out there that maybe it’s going to get settled, maybe it’s not. Man, the clock’s ticking on that because it’s supposed to go into effect at ’25 and that seems far off. But signing day’s coming up first week of December and those guys want to know what it looks like,” Brown explained.

The House vs. NCAA settlement was recently placed on hold September 5 with Judge Claudia Wilken urging for revisions regarding third-party NIL restrictions. As many are awaiting a final settlement that will set a new precedent for how college athletes are paid, how rostered are constructed, and much more.

“Roster reductions, is that part of it? Because that’s going to happen quickly. Are your scholarship numbers gonna go up? That’s gonna happen quickly. So there’s a lot of issues, the good thing is, I’m not worried about it.”

“I’m worried about how we can get first downs this week, how we we stop them and get some first downs,” Brown concluded.