Even while Georgia and Alabama prepare to meet up Saturday in what may very well end up being the biggest game of the 2024 college football regular season, much of the sport’s attention Wednesday was fixated on UNLV , where starting quarterback Matt Sluka left a ranked Rebels team three games into the season over what his agent alleged to be unfulfilled NIL promises.
The coach of the No. 1 team in the nation has some thoughts on the matter.
During his appearance on the weekly SEC coaches teleconference, Georgia’s Kirby Smart advocated for a more formalized process for players to receive payments for their name, image and likeness while warning of other, similar cases to Sluka’s arising in the months and years to come.
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“What I’m saying is it happens more and more and it’s going to happen even more and more as we move into this revenue share where I feel like, unless there’s a contract and there’s a set contract where Person A has to stay a certain amount of time or they’re going to have to pay back this contract, we’re never going to get to where we want to get to,” Smart said. “There’s probably going to be more and more of this going on, especially as the year goes on into November, December. Athletic departments are going to struggle to be able to make their commitments come to fruition and I think we’re going to see some really tough times in college football when all this is said and done.”
Smart acknowledged he wasn’t aware of the full scope of the situation at UNLV, where Sluka’s decision has turned into a dizzying saga with a new development or comment appearing seemingly every couple of hours.
Since Sluka announced early Wednesday morning that he was redshirting the rest of the 2024 season because of “certain representations that were made to me, which were not upheld,” Sluka’s agent said UNLV did not make good on a $100,000 verbal offer for the quarterback, who transferred into the program last offseason from Holy Cross.
In a statement, UNLV said it honored all previously agreed-upon scholarships for Sluka and that Sluka’s representation made demands on the university and its NIL collective in order for Sluka to continue to play, which the school interpreted as a violation of NCAA rules and Nevada state law. The company that manages UNLV’s NIL collective said that it paid Sluka $3,000 this summer for appearing at an engagement.
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The Rebels are 3-0 this season and ranked No. 23 in the US LBM Coaches Poll , putting them in a strong early position for the College Football Playoff berth guaranteed to the highest-rated conference champion from outside the Power Four leagues. Sluka has played a role in that success, accounting for 571 total yards (318 passing, 253 rushing) and seven touchdowns (six passing, one rushing) for an offense averaging 40.7 points per game, the 19 th -best mark in the FBS.
While Georgia’s NIL resources and apparatus differ drastically from a smaller program like UNLV, Smart is concerned about the way that the relatively nascent player payment system is operating, saying he doesn’t believe Sluka’s case “will be the last.”
“People sometimes make promises, and I know I’ve come across it in our recruiting that they can’t keep (those promises),” he said. “Sometimes, there’s no rebuttal for the athlete. Sometimes, there’s no rebuttal for the athletic department or the collective or whoever’s involved. And it’s sad that there’s not a way to police it better.”
This article originally appeared on Athens Banner-Herald: Kirby Smart says there will be 'more' cases like UNLV and Matt Sluka in college football
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