One of the leading authorities on NIL in college athletics said Matthew Sluka's decision to end his season at UNLV after three games because of a disagreement over $100,000 could tempt other players to leave their teams during the season to pursue better opportunities — even if they don't have a beef with their current school. “This is unprecedented and a sign of the times,” said Blake Lawrence, whose company Opendorse works with dozens of schools and more than 40 booster-backed collectives on name, image and likeness compensation. Sluka, by playing in fewer than five games, preserves his final season of eligibility and can play elsewhere in 2025.
Sluka's agent, Marcus Cromartie, told The Associated Press that his client decided to sit out the rest of the season over a $100,000 NIL payment that was promised by an assistant coach after he agreed to transfer to the Rebels last winter. No written contract was ever put in place, Cromartie said, and efforts to set up a payment plan were unsuccessful. UNLV accused Sluka’s representative of making “implied threats” and “financial demands upon the university and its NIL collective in order to continue playing," which is against NCAA rules and Nevada state law.
The NCAA cleared the way for NIL compensation in July 2021, forced by state laws that were about to make it illegal to bar college athletes from cashing in on their fame. The NCAA has stuck to its rules against schools paying athletes directly to play, though that.