When the situation between UNLV and Matthew Sluka blew up on Wednesday, one of the overarching questions we were left with was this: With all the money changing hands in Las Friggin' Vegas of all places, how was it possible that UNLV couldn't find a measly $100,000 for their starting quarterback?
Turns out, a six-figure offer to keep Sluka on the team showed up, only 24 hours too late to keep Sluka on the team.
Mike Palm, VP of operations for Circa Resort and Casino, told the Las Vegas Review-Journal that he reached out to UNLV with a $100,000 offer for Sluka, but by that point it was too late to salvage the relationship between the program and its (former) quarterback.
“(Circa CEO Derek Stevens) and I talked about the situation and thought it would be worth it for $100 thousand to keep the Rebels’ playoff hopes alive,” Palm told the paper.
As we now know, Sluka transferred from Holy Cross to UNLV on a verbal promise of $100,000 from an unnamed Rebels offensive assistant.
Sluka's agent, unlicensed to operate in Nevada, was unaware of the recent NCAA rules changes that would've allowed his client to get something in writing with UNLV's collective prior to his enrollment, and so Sluka moved to Las Vegas that his $100,000 would materialize at some point. It never did. Sluka never had an arrangement with UNLV's collective beyond a $3,000 team-wide deal it made with each Rebel and, after pressing, Sluka's camp eventually procured an offer to pay him up to $3,000.
So, Sluka walked and UNLV called his bluff.
And in a pure Vegas twist to the story, Circa could stand to recoup its hypothetical $100,000 investment and then some this very Saturday. After the line briefly flipped on Wednesday, UNLV is now a 1.5-point favorite over Fresno State as the Rebels rally behind backup quarterback Hajj-Malik Williams.
“After seeing the number move back up, maybe it’s Hajj-Malik we should have been focused on,” Palm said.