Did UNLV Punk Matt Sluka Or Is His Agent Just That Incompetent?

In a sign of almost certain things to come, UNLV quarterback announced he was redshirting his remaining season and will definitely be back in the transfer portal soon.

There are now two sides to this story and both are equally curious, albeit for the level of stupidity involved.

In this corner, college athlete Matt Sluka and his agent, Marcus Cromartie. Their claim is that they had a verbal offer from an assistant football coach for a $100,000 payment from the University of Nevada Las Vegas (UNLV) to Sluka to play for the football team. They further claim that UNLV's collective paid Sluka $3,000 for an "engagement" earlier this year.

In the opposite corner, The University of Nevada Las Vegas who claims that Sluka tried to essentially extort $100,000 from the school after the football team's hot 3-0 start to the season and that they interpreted this as a violation of NCAA rules.

Regardless of which side you lean towards, let's agree to just how high the level of incompetence rises in this scenario.

If you are a university, any university, in the NIL era, you hopefully have ongoing training for your athletic department staff, coaches, trainers, etc. around the importance of not having any conversations related to NIL unless you are the authorized voice of the school in such matters, right?

And, in the NIL era, how dumb would a college have to be to believe that they would land any version of a competitive quarterback with ZERO compensation?

But, in fairness to Sluka and Cromartie, this would not be the first time that a coach, assistant coach, staff member or alumni has promised something, then raced to deliver it later. Think of it as forgiveness over permission. "Hey Athletic Director, I just landed a great transfer portal QB for a mere $100K. I know I wasn't in a position to offer anything, but the spirit moved me and now we can actually win football games and make our boosters happy."

Cromartie, on the other hand, would have to be one of the most incompetent agents in sports history to allow his client to slip on even a school colors t-shirt without having a written agreement. We now see even pro athletes in protracted or contentious contract conversations who are showing up at practice, but not practicing so they are protected from injury and equally protected from fines related to skipping practices.

Yet, Cromartie was apparently so convinced that UNLV would act on good faith on this verbal offer from an assistant coach that he shoved his client onto the practice and game field, risking catastrophic injury, while he waited for, "the check's in the mail."

My take would be that Sluka should do with his agent exactly what he did with UNLV- terminate the relationship. Any other athletes currently represented by Cromartie should probably also take a hard look in the mirror and decide if they want this level (and I mean subterranean) of representation or perhaps something a bit more assertive...and safe?

And, UNLV, wake up. Great players come with great price tags, just like the tuition you keep raising while you swear the education you provide is top-notch, except apparently to your assistant coaches.