September 25, 2024 • 9 mins
Craig and Cam close out Wednesday's show with a look at the developing story of UNLV QB Matthew Sluka leaving the program over a NIL dispute.
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:03):
Sunshine goal away to day, I don't feel much like.
Speaker 2 (00:09):
Them s and some man's gone.
Speaker 1 (00:12):
He's tried to run my life.
Speaker 2 (00:15):
You don't know what he's asking when he tells me
I better get in line.
Speaker 3 (00:24):
We continue on a Wednesday Hot Rock edition of the
program here on sports Radio AM thirteen hundred. The Zone
were Jonathan Edward Sunshine from the early days, There not
much sunshine. I've found this story to be very very interesting,
intriguing anyway, when everything came down a few years ago
(00:48):
about nil and it was said, you know, here's what
can happen, and here's the connections you can have, and
then we're a lot of worries and concerns voiced about
guardrails on it and that it could be a Wild
West type of thing and rules and all that other
kind of stuff. The can was repeatedly kicked down the road,
(01:13):
and it may yet still be, but there are drawbacks.
There are consequences that have happened for it, and including
this one. And I think this is something that probably
all of us expected happened at some point, but this
(01:34):
is the first time I and may already have happened
in other places, but it's definitely catching headlines here. Did
you see this business about the quarterback at UNLV.
Speaker 1 (01:42):
Yeah, what a crazy story.
Speaker 3 (01:43):
Matthew Sluca is the quarterback at UNLV, or at least was,
but he left his team last night. Now, UNLV is
undefeated right now and considered to be one of those
teams that could be in contention for that group of
five slot as a conference champion, the highest ranked one
(02:06):
of five conference champions that draws an automatic bid into
the College Football Playoff. Sluca is a big reason why
they're unbeaten. Well, he left the team last night overclaims
of unfulfilled verbal nil promises from a UNLV assistant coach.
(02:27):
His agent, Marcus Cramarty, had told ESPN in any interview
that UNLV did not come through on a verbal offer
of one hundred thousand dollars from an assistant coach. The
quarterback's father, Bob Sluca, told the head coach, or told
ESPN that head coach Barry Odom later in a phone
conversation that the offer wasn't valid because it didn't come
(02:48):
from him, but rather coming from wait for the name,
offensive coordinator Brennan Marion. Remember him as a receivers coach
at Texas He declined comment to ESPN. UNLV and Shannon Cottrell,
the director of athlete Engagements for the Friends of UNLV Collective,
(03:10):
also did not respond to requests for comment. UNLV's collective
did pay Sluka one three thousand dollars fee for an
engagement he made this summer, according to Rob Sein, who
runs Blueprint Sports, it's a company that manages the collective.
Sign said that sluca's agents first made contact with the
(03:31):
collective in late August to discuss future opportunities to work together.
Sign said he wasn't sure of any or wasn't aware
of any promises to pay SLUCA one hundred thousand dollars
and that SLUCA had not contacted the collective about missing
payments as far as he knew. And again, this is
a team that's three and other number twenty three in
the Coach's Poll. It's the first time the program has
(03:52):
been ranked in any major poll in history. They've beaten
Houston in Kansas with Sluca quarterback. They host Fresno State
in their out West Conference opener on Saturday, Big One There.
The Rebels home game the following Friday night against Syracuse
has become among the most anticipated in recent school history,
and of course un LV is right in the middle
(04:13):
of this go between about whether they stay in the
Mountain West or whether they go to the Pac twelve.
And because Marion's offer to Sluka was verbal and never
formalized was written, there are vary inversion varying versions of
what happened. There are sources who told ESPN that Sluca
(04:33):
approached Odom about the money in recent days and practiced
Monday with the Rebels, but then didn't practice yesterday, and
he announced yesterday on social media that he would not
play for the Rebels again this season and he planned
to use his red shirt this year. The only formal
offer from the school, according to the agent, was that
(04:55):
three thousand. It was three thousand dollars a month for
four months, and the only money that Sluca's received from UNLV,
per Cramarti the agent, was three thousand dollars for moving expenses.
So the the tension about all of this seems to
set around that verbal offer. The reports emerged from U
and LV about Sluke asking for money. Sluken says that
(05:18):
all he was asking for is what the program verbally
promised and with no contract required up front because of
the vagaries of NIL rules and third parties who are
in charge of this and the details. This ambiguity over
the validity of the verbal offers is a big part
of this whole thing. With college athletics, it becomes a
(05:39):
he said, he said, he said type of thing. And
now you've got a guy who's a key piece of
UNLV's hopes to perhaps land the G five spot in
the college football playoffs saying I'm walking, I'm out. I'm
out if you don't. You guys didn't pay me what
you said you're gonna pay. It was one hundred thousand
dollars and you and LV said, and the head coach,
(06:04):
Barry Odoms said, it didn't come for me, so can't
be a real offer.
Speaker 1 (06:08):
Welcome to college football in twenty twenty four, Craig. And
this is the latest example this happening. Jayden Rashata, Remember
he was a Florida quarterback. He's ends up suing Florida
and Billy Napier for fourteen million dollars that he said
he was supposed to get in a NIL deal. Now
he's at Georgia. The same thing happening here with UNLV
and the key part about this with the NIL collective
(06:30):
is that they're they're not binding employment contracts, so stuff
like this is probably going to continue to happen. And
once again it shows the NCAA was just not ready
for the NIL era. And so I'm curious, Craig.
Speaker 2 (06:45):
You know, if you end up signing contracts right then
technically that means you're an employee of the team the university.
So if you go down that road, what happens there,
then you're gonna have collective bargaining agreements. Are you gonna
have unions, You're gonna have player associations. I mean, who
knows where this could go, but it's just spiraling out
of control. It sucks for the quarterback, it sucks for
(07:06):
UNLV and that the coaches, who you know, they don't
they don't control, they don't control the collective stuff. We
heard Sark earlier today from his conference call when asked
about it, and he said the same thing, like I'm
focused on when football games, that's something else, and so
the same thing for probably coach Odam, coach Mary and
they they can't control what money he did or did
not get. But it was it was a false promise
(07:27):
that was not paid up and likely Craig this is
probably happening to a lot of other players across the country.
They just have not gone public with it.
Speaker 3 (07:35):
Yeah. I guess the thing that comes down to is this.
If you are a player, especially a high profile player
like a quarterback at a school, and you are quote
unquote promise something or there was a discussion about something,
(08:00):
I would say this, if you can't get into writing,
you better get your money up front. I'm not saying
that that coaches or the NIVL people, the collective or
whoever are not good to their word. I am merely
saying that there is ambiguity. To borrow the word from
Jerry Jones, am big ambiguity. Just make sure there's no
(08:25):
misunderstandings upfront about what is promised or discussed or whatever
it might be. Find out what it is. Find out
if you're running it through a collective. They're the ones
that have to put the things down, the documents down
because of the tax purposes and things of that nature.
(08:45):
So you got to run it through them. You got
to find out through them if you're going to be
able to do that, and if you don't, then then
you run the risk of something like this happening, or
coach that I never promised him that kind of money.
I said, I might have said there might be opportunities
for you to earn old maybe up to one hundred
thousand dollars in this down you never know in Las Vegas.
(09:09):
And then the student athletes say, no, I was actually
told if you if you're playing with us this year,
we're going to get you one hundred thousand dollars. There's
a difference in how that is worded and what the
conversation is all about. And so probably the cautionary tale
is make sure it's clear upfront on both sides. On
(09:29):
both sides. That goes for the coaching staff and the
school they and you know, it's it's got to be
pretty clearly spelled out what is offered and or promised
to a certain student athlete that the school is going
to have to come through and make good on. So
all right, coming up, we'll be back to wrap up
(09:49):
today's edition of the program. A Wednesday edition of the
program here on sports Radio AM thirteen under the Zone
in the iHeartRadio app
Sunshine goal away to day, I don't feel much like.
Speaker 2 (00:09):
Them s and some man's gone.
Speaker 1 (00:12):
He's tried to run my life.
Speaker 2 (00:15):
You don't know what he's asking when he tells me
I better get in line.
Speaker 3 (00:24):
We continue on a Wednesday Hot Rock edition of the
program here on sports Radio AM thirteen hundred. The Zone
were Jonathan Edward Sunshine from the early days, There not
much sunshine. I've found this story to be very very interesting,
intriguing anyway, when everything came down a few years ago
(00:48):
about nil and it was said, you know, here's what
can happen, and here's the connections you can have, and
then we're a lot of worries and concerns voiced about
guardrails on it and that it could be a Wild
West type of thing and rules and all that other
kind of stuff. The can was repeatedly kicked down the road,
(01:13):
and it may yet still be, but there are drawbacks.
There are consequences that have happened for it, and including
this one. And I think this is something that probably
all of us expected happened at some point, but this
(01:34):
is the first time I and may already have happened
in other places, but it's definitely catching headlines here. Did
you see this business about the quarterback at UNLV.
Speaker 1 (01:42):
Yeah, what a crazy story.
Speaker 3 (01:43):
Matthew Sluca is the quarterback at UNLV, or at least was,
but he left his team last night. Now, UNLV is
undefeated right now and considered to be one of those
teams that could be in contention for that group of
five slot as a conference champion, the highest ranked one
(02:06):
of five conference champions that draws an automatic bid into
the College Football Playoff. Sluca is a big reason why
they're unbeaten. Well, he left the team last night overclaims
of unfulfilled verbal nil promises from a UNLV assistant coach.
(02:27):
His agent, Marcus Cramarty, had told ESPN in any interview
that UNLV did not come through on a verbal offer
of one hundred thousand dollars from an assistant coach. The
quarterback's father, Bob Sluca, told the head coach, or told
ESPN that head coach Barry Odom later in a phone
conversation that the offer wasn't valid because it didn't come
(02:48):
from him, but rather coming from wait for the name,
offensive coordinator Brennan Marion. Remember him as a receivers coach
at Texas He declined comment to ESPN. UNLV and Shannon Cottrell,
the director of athlete Engagements for the Friends of UNLV Collective,
(03:10):
also did not respond to requests for comment. UNLV's collective
did pay Sluka one three thousand dollars fee for an
engagement he made this summer, according to Rob Sein, who
runs Blueprint Sports, it's a company that manages the collective.
Sign said that sluca's agents first made contact with the
(03:31):
collective in late August to discuss future opportunities to work together.
Sign said he wasn't sure of any or wasn't aware
of any promises to pay SLUCA one hundred thousand dollars
and that SLUCA had not contacted the collective about missing
payments as far as he knew. And again, this is
a team that's three and other number twenty three in
the Coach's Poll. It's the first time the program has
(03:52):
been ranked in any major poll in history. They've beaten
Houston in Kansas with Sluca quarterback. They host Fresno State
in their out West Conference opener on Saturday, Big One There.
The Rebels home game the following Friday night against Syracuse
has become among the most anticipated in recent school history,
and of course un LV is right in the middle
(04:13):
of this go between about whether they stay in the
Mountain West or whether they go to the Pac twelve.
And because Marion's offer to Sluka was verbal and never
formalized was written, there are vary inversion varying versions of
what happened. There are sources who told ESPN that Sluca
(04:33):
approached Odom about the money in recent days and practiced
Monday with the Rebels, but then didn't practice yesterday, and
he announced yesterday on social media that he would not
play for the Rebels again this season and he planned
to use his red shirt this year. The only formal
offer from the school, according to the agent, was that
(04:55):
three thousand. It was three thousand dollars a month for
four months, and the only money that Sluca's received from UNLV,
per Cramarti the agent, was three thousand dollars for moving expenses.
So the the tension about all of this seems to
set around that verbal offer. The reports emerged from U
and LV about Sluke asking for money. Sluken says that
(05:18):
all he was asking for is what the program verbally
promised and with no contract required up front because of
the vagaries of NIL rules and third parties who are
in charge of this and the details. This ambiguity over
the validity of the verbal offers is a big part
of this whole thing. With college athletics, it becomes a
(05:39):
he said, he said, he said type of thing. And
now you've got a guy who's a key piece of
UNLV's hopes to perhaps land the G five spot in
the college football playoffs saying I'm walking, I'm out. I'm
out if you don't. You guys didn't pay me what
you said you're gonna pay. It was one hundred thousand
dollars and you and LV said, and the head coach,
(06:04):
Barry Odoms said, it didn't come for me, so can't
be a real offer.
Speaker 1 (06:08):
Welcome to college football in twenty twenty four, Craig. And
this is the latest example this happening. Jayden Rashata, Remember
he was a Florida quarterback. He's ends up suing Florida
and Billy Napier for fourteen million dollars that he said
he was supposed to get in a NIL deal. Now
he's at Georgia. The same thing happening here with UNLV
and the key part about this with the NIL collective
(06:30):
is that they're they're not binding employment contracts, so stuff
like this is probably going to continue to happen. And
once again it shows the NCAA was just not ready
for the NIL era. And so I'm curious, Craig.
Speaker 2 (06:45):
You know, if you end up signing contracts right then
technically that means you're an employee of the team the university.
So if you go down that road, what happens there,
then you're gonna have collective bargaining agreements. Are you gonna
have unions, You're gonna have player associations. I mean, who
knows where this could go, but it's just spiraling out
of control. It sucks for the quarterback, it sucks for
(07:06):
UNLV and that the coaches, who you know, they don't
they don't control, they don't control the collective stuff. We
heard Sark earlier today from his conference call when asked
about it, and he said the same thing, like I'm
focused on when football games, that's something else, and so
the same thing for probably coach Odam, coach Mary and
they they can't control what money he did or did
not get. But it was it was a false promise
(07:27):
that was not paid up and likely Craig this is
probably happening to a lot of other players across the country.
They just have not gone public with it.
Speaker 3 (07:35):
Yeah. I guess the thing that comes down to is this.
If you are a player, especially a high profile player
like a quarterback at a school, and you are quote
unquote promise something or there was a discussion about something,
(08:00):
I would say this, if you can't get into writing,
you better get your money up front. I'm not saying
that that coaches or the NIVL people, the collective or
whoever are not good to their word. I am merely
saying that there is ambiguity. To borrow the word from
Jerry Jones, am big ambiguity. Just make sure there's no
(08:25):
misunderstandings upfront about what is promised or discussed or whatever
it might be. Find out what it is. Find out
if you're running it through a collective. They're the ones
that have to put the things down, the documents down
because of the tax purposes and things of that nature.
(08:45):
So you got to run it through them. You got
to find out through them if you're going to be
able to do that, and if you don't, then then
you run the risk of something like this happening, or
coach that I never promised him that kind of money.
I said, I might have said there might be opportunities
for you to earn old maybe up to one hundred
thousand dollars in this down you never know in Las Vegas.
(09:09):
And then the student athletes say, no, I was actually
told if you if you're playing with us this year,
we're going to get you one hundred thousand dollars. There's
a difference in how that is worded and what the
conversation is all about. And so probably the cautionary tale
is make sure it's clear upfront on both sides. On
(09:29):
both sides. That goes for the coaching staff and the
school they and you know, it's it's got to be
pretty clearly spelled out what is offered and or promised
to a certain student athlete that the school is going
to have to come through and make good on. So
all right, coming up, we'll be back to wrap up
(09:49):
today's edition of the program. A Wednesday edition of the
program here on sports Radio AM thirteen under the Zone
in the iHeartRadio app
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