LSU Tigers Brian Kelly Speaks Out on UNLV’s NIL Situation With QB Matthew Sluka

LSU Tigers head football coach Brian Kelly spoke out on the wild NIL-centric situation involving UNLV and quarterback Matt Sluka.

Sep 14, 2024; Columbia, South Carolina, USA; LSU Tigers head coach Brian Kelly looks on during the second quarter against the South Carolina Gamecocks at Williams-Brice Stadium. / Scott Kinser-Imagn Images

There has been a lot of good to come out of the new era of collegiate sports with NIL deals. Players are now able to earn some cash off their name, image and likeness, something that previously was not allowed.

However, some troubling issues have arisen. 

A common theme for players looking to maximize their earnings is to play in a certain number of games based on the sport and then redshirt with the intent to transfer. By not appearing in more contests, they can retain one more year of eligibility.

There are also some horror stories with agents. Athletes can look at what happened with former Florida State Seminoles running back, and now member of the Arkansas Razorbacks, Rodney Hill.

He had to transfer after an NIL agent reached out to other schools looking to secure more money, ruining the relationship between the running back and coaching staff.

When promises aren’t kept there are going to be problems. It is what UNLV is currently going through as they need a new starting quarterback.

Matthew Sluka announced on Wednesday that he would be redshirting this season, reportedly because of a lack of promised NIL payment.

It has become a major topic around college football as the Rebels also lost one of their running backs, Michael Allen, who used similar language in his message about intentions to redshirt and transfer as Sluka did.

UNLV improved their record to 3-0 after defeating the Kansas Jayhawks 23-21 last week. But, they are losing two players who have contributed to that hot start over NIL disputes.

During an SEC coaches teleconference on Wednesday, it was brought up. LSU Tigers head coach Brian Kelly offered his opinion on the matter, as he doesn’t believe the revenue sharing that is on the horizon will help quell these issues of players redshirting.

“The NIL, because it becomes a third-party piece, you lose control,” Kelly said, via Andrew Graham of On3. “And that’s why the revenue sharing piece is so important and getting that legislation passed now puts that back through the universities. And now those contracts can be written a lot differently. When you’re dealing with a third party and collectives and NILs, the universities are at arms length. And so it’s much more difficult to put in the kind of language necessary to kind of see that a maybe a quarterback doesn’t leave halfway through the season or, you know, a guy doesn’t opt for a particular bowl game. Revenue sharing changes the dynamics.”

A lot of the problems facing the programs can be solved, in Kelly’s opinion, with the contractual controls schools can put in once revenue sharing begins.

He also stressed the importance of athletes and their families working with legitimate, certified agents who have their best interests in mind.

“The first thing is you should never give up your name, your image and likeness exclusively,” Kelly said. “You should hold on to that. And I think that’s the first thing. I think the second thing is any time we’re talking to the young men, we want to make sure that when we talk about agents, that they’re certified. And I know that’s difficult in most instances, but a certified agent versus somebody that does it as a part time job — those should be red flags for families and they should be very, very cautious relative to signing anything if they are not a certified agent. Or, if they want your name, image and likeness and that, to me, are the kind of things that we try to educate when we have the young men on our campus.”

These are topics and debates that are going to rage on for a while. Just like anything in the world, major change takes some time to get used to.

The landscape of collegiate sports has drastically changed and more adjustments are coming. Everyone is attempting to catch up in an attempt to ensure things run as smoothly as possible.