Casino Mogul Offers to Pay UNLV QB the $100k He Was Allegedly Promised

The UNLV story keeps getting weirder and weirder.

Jay Biggerstaff-Imagn Images

Despite some massive games on the slate this weekend, the biggest story of the week in college football has been the drama surrounding the UNLV Rebels and now former starting quarterback Matthew Sluka.

Late on Monday night, Sluka put a post up on his social media account that he has elected to leave the program and sit out the rest of the season in order to use a redshirt, citing 'certain representations' that were not fulfilled. Sluka and the Rebels were off to a 3-0 start and about to begin conference play, but an NIL-related dispute led to him electing to leave the team in middle of the season.

Both Sluka's representation and UNLV as well as its collective essentially have made opposite claims as to what occurred, with ESPN's Pete Thamel having reported that Sluka's camp told him they were promised $100,000 and only paid $3,000, while the school denies any promise of the sort ever occurred.

Things took another interesting turn on Friday when news emerged that Derek Stevens, the CEO of Circa Sports - a Las Vegas based sportsbook and casino - offered the school for the company to pay Sluka the $100,000 themselves in order to help UNLV potentially make the College Football Playoff. According to a report from Brett McMurphy of the Action Network, Circa Sports' Vice President of Operations Mike Palm made a call to UNLV and made the offer, but they were told by the school that the situation was past the point of no return and that Sluka was no longer a member of the football team.

With the Rebels now having to turn the page, they will do so this weekend with former Campbell quarterback Hajj-Malik Williams. Williams was the team's presumed starter throughout the spring before Sluka arrived from Holy Cross and figures to fit in at least relatively seamlessly.

UNLV will host Fresno State at home this week as the Rebels look to get away from the distraction of the Sluka situation and get conference play started off on the right foot as the team tries to continue their perfect record and get to 4-0.