Admit it, you like chaos when it has nothing to do with you. On Wednesday morning, college football was given its latest dose of off-the-field chaos. UNLV football’s starting quarterback announced that he was no longer playing the rest of the season due to ‘representations’ that ‘were not upheld’. We found out later that Matthew Sulka was promised $100 grand to commit to UNLV, and wasn’t paid anything close to that.
People on the internet were rational and waited for all the facts before passing judgment. I’m just kidding. People were furious. Calling Sulka a quitter on his team, shaming UNLV for not getting a deal done, and professing NIL has ruined collegiate athletics.
The truth, as always, is somewhere in the middle. No one looks good in this situation. There is no guarantee that the 3-0 UNLV will have a great season and the backup will do well. There is no guarantee that Sulka will end up in a better situation next year and won’t be completely blackballed from the sport.
UNLV Football
Starting 3-0 is great, especially for UNLV football. Their last 3-0 start was in 1984. UNLV football is a game opponents look at and check off as a win. Since 2005, UNLV has won seven games twice. UNLV football is on the up though. Under Barry Odom, they went 9-5 last year and their quarterback, Jayden Maiava transferred to USC to become the backup to Miller Moss.
UNLV isn’t going to freak out after losing their starting quarterback three games into the season. It’s not ideal, but it does give an undefeated team something to rally around. Their team is not built around throwing the football. Sulka was completing less than half of his passes. UNLV averages just under 300 yards rushing per game. The team is built around running the football and their backup quarterback won’t be asked to throw the ball more than Sulka was.
This situation isn’t ideal for the UNLV football program. Recruits will question every promise made to them by a coach or their collective. Head coach Barry Odom will be under fire for allowing a coach under him to promise a recruit an amount of money that was never delivered.
The head coach is not only responsible for the players but also the coaches. Odom hasn’t taken heat on the internet. He should. If Harbaugh is going to get suspended for a staffer spying on other teams, why isn’t Odom not getting the same concern for a staffer promising someone a livelihood and not delivering?
Matthew Sulka
There is no telling how this will work out for Matthew Sulka. College football teams could stay away from Sulka if they believe he isn’t worth the distraction that could come with his signing.
Sulka and his representation should’ve got the promise of money in legal writing instead of taking the coach’s word. I know this because I’ve watched the first season of “Suits”.
Matthew Sulka is also a symbol of the new era of college football. Instead of playing out his career knowing he had lost out on money that was promised to him, he decided to take a stand. Sulka’s father acknowledged that this type of situation happens in college football. This is true. Many of those stories don’t get out and those players don’t sit out.
Sulka knows that he could not get another opportunity at the highest level of college football. Hopefully, he didn’t take this decision with haste. If he didn’t, then his decision to not work for free if he didn’t get paid for his talents should be applauded
Big Picture NIL Discussion
Many people are using the Sulka-UNLV situation as an opportunity to blame paying players for a reason college football stinks. The truth is that realignment is the driving force behind all the craziness in college football. Football is the driving resource for many if not all college sports programs. With the T.V. money coming in for conferences, football programs have spent lots of money on their roster to win games. Thus winning games improves your program’s standing to move into a bigger conference.
NIL will get figured out…eventually. It doesn’t help when the pay-for-play isn’t supposed to be a pay-for-play. It is hard to blame the players in any NIL controversy, whatever the outcome is. In any other industry, young men aged 18-22 can be paid for their talents. Most college football players won’t go to the league, so they shouldn’t blame them for capitalizing on their window.
Conclusion
UNLV recently announced an agreement to stay with the Mountain West Conference. Yet, even when agreeing to this deal, they landed an escape clause that would allow them to jump to a ‘power four’ conference without a penalty. This dealmaking is eerily similar to the college football recruits who sign with a program but keep their options open. The UNLV program is admitting that despite signing an agreement with the MWC, they’re open for business.
In the end, the players and NIL aren’t killing college football. Nothing is killing college football, ratings are up, players are getting paid, and greedy institutions are continuing to be greedy.
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