UNLV football program is ranked for the first time in its history, even though Matt Sluka is only completing 43.75% of his passes, though he's apparently a running threat. In any event, by quitting the program before 4 games, he preserves a year of college eligibility so he could presumably go into the portal again and get paid next year.
Interesting thing is some of the numbers cited regarding what some college football players are getting.
According to leading NIL platform Opendorse, the average Group of Five quarterback is getting an average of $116,000. The average top 25 Power Four quarterback is averaging $819,000 in NIL benefits.
The going rate for top QBs like Miami's Cam Ward is well over $1 million.
Sluka had also explored transferring out of Holy Cross following the 2022 season and had asked what he believed to be a representative from a power-conference school what his going rate could be.
It's unknown whether UNLV can afford either of those extremes, but there's your "why" for Sluka. It's just a matter of how deep the pool you swim in these days. It took Ohio State $20 million to shore up its roster in the offseason. Translation: Beat Michigan. UNLV's program took a tumble Wednesday over a hundred thousand. In an analysis piece with 247Sports, Hummer wrote it is not the first time this calendar year UNLV has lost a transfer over what was described as a failed delivery of a promise.
https://www.cbssports.com/college-football/news/matthew-sluka-deserts-unlv-unfulfilled-nil-promise-drives-starting-qb-of-undefeated-cfp-hopeful-to-quit/
I thought the NIL allowed college athletes to monetize their likeness so they could do commercials like Caleb Williams did last season.
But apparently it involves direct payments from schools to athletes.
Hilariously, UNLV says they wouldn't have agreed to pay Sluka because it would have violated the NCAA's Pay to Play rules. On First Take they alluded to a Supreme Court decision which basically invalidated all NCAA rules barring "amateur athletes" from getting paid.
In any event, OSU spent $20 million before this season to shore up their roster? Wow, of course OSU is probably one of the top programs in revenues but that's approaching NFL team spending.
