The absolute mess that exploded between UNLV and its starting quarterback Matthew Sluka leaves all parties involved looking malicious at worst and utterly foolish at best, but now various parties are speaking out to wash their hands of the situation.
Blueprint Sports, the company that manages UNLV's collective as well as a number of others, released a statement to the media on Wednesday afternoon saying it never entered into specific agreement with Sluka to pay him anything in the neighborhood of $100,000. In fact, it never entered into any agreement to pay Sluka anything at all beyond what every Rebel earns.
Shortly afterward, UNLV released a statement of its own.
The Sluka camp's version of events is that, according to his agent Marcus Cromartie of Equity Sports, Sluka entered into a verbal agreement with an unnamed offensive assistant coach. Via On3:
“When I had the conversation with the offensive assistant who was doing Matt’s recruitment, we talked about a number north of $100,000 to $150,000,” Cromartie said. “This was a number that I was told would be given to Matt to come there.”
When Sluka still did not have a deal midway through training camp, according to Cromartie, he reached back out to UNLV to reopen negotiations.
“I reached out to the coaches halfway through camp,” he said. “I reached out politely, ‘Hey, I understand you guys are midway through camp. It’s a quarterback competition, but the NIL agreement hasn’t been sent out. Can we speak on this?’
“Nothing was said back for a couple of weeks ago. I approached them again. I said, ‘Hey, you know what’s going on?’ I even offered to meet them halfway. I said, ‘I understand that trying to get $100,000 within the next four months may be hard, but can we get him $10,000 a month?’ They said, ‘No.’ I said, ‘How about $5,000?’ They came back with, ‘We can give them $3,000 a month for the next four months. Take it or leave it.'”
I theorized in the middle of the night that this may simply be a negotiating ploy and that by Saturday, Sluka would lead the 3-0 Rebels on the field against Fresno State. That no longer seems tenable.
Now, Sluka is a free agent quarterback looking for a market with one year of eligibility remaining and a sub-.500 completion percentage. The next question to ask: What happens if/when Sluka's backup plays equal or better than him?
As always, stay tuned to The Scoop for the latest.