QB Jaden Rashada signs 9.5 million NIL deal to sign with the Miami Hurricanes

Submitted by ldevon1 on June 27th, 2022 at 5:36 AM

Its being reported the 4-star prospect and No. 7 quarterback in the class of 2023, per 247Sports' composite rankings, agreed to a $9.5 million name, image and likeness deal with Miami booster John Ruiz and also turned down an $11 million offer from Florida's Gator Collective.

That's not even the shocking part to me. Apparently he has a NIL attorney negotiating his deals, before he even signs with a school. "Jaden left millions on the table," Michael W. Caspino, who is known as an NIL lawyer, said. "Millions. He did not pick the highest offer. He went there because he loves Miami, the coaches and the opportunity."

Caspino also said Florida's NIL collective needs some work in this new era of college football."Florida is the most dysfunctional collective in all of college football," he said. "I plan on steering my clients away from them. From my standpoint, I never ever want to deal with them again. If it weren't for the collective that's completely dysfunctional at Florida, he probably would have been there."

Of course Florida is denying the whole thing

https://twitter.com/GatorCollective/status/1541238884654321664?t=eo295VSG_394_mLIwuMLLA&s=19

How long before the NIL bubble bursts? 

https://news.yahoo.com/report-miami-commit-may-accepted-035613921.html

megalomanick

June 28th, 2022 at 10:03 AM ^

I get the media is telling you not to like the Supreme Court right now

Holy fucking projection. Have you been to a school board meeting in the last year? Seen the multiple incidents of militia groups showing up to harass libraries full of mothers and children in just the last two weeks? You really want to talk about media whipping people in to a frenzy? Yeah, let's have that conversation...

Nervous Bird

June 27th, 2022 at 7:36 AM ^

I don't think Dante Moore will have much leverage. So far, his only bidder is Oregon. He seemingly only bonded with 3 schools (Michigan, ND, Oregon). Carr basically took his spot with ND. Michigan, rightly, doesn't engage free agency. So, it's Oregon, back on the market, forgo the $ and pick the school you want to attend without monetary qualifiers. 

smitty1983

June 27th, 2022 at 7:12 AM ^

Where is the NCAA?, Clearly this is not what NIL was intended for. This is already way out of hand. 

Also can't wait to see how kids handle this kind of cash in college. 

Blue in Paradise

June 27th, 2022 at 10:01 AM ^

I never really understood the whole "18 year olds can't handle the money" as a reason against NIL.  I know that you are not saying that in your post above but I have seen it used in a lot of NIL debates.

In every major sport other than football - baseball, hockey, soccer and basketball - 18 y.o. kids get paid hundreds of thousands / millions on contracts all the time.  Some handle it well while others blow up their lives.  My point being is that shouldn't really be a factor in a person's right to sign the contract.

Neither should the "it will ruin the locker room" argument because one guy is getting $3 million and the next guys is getting $10k.  That is f*ing life man - does it ruin an NFL locker room / private business when some people make millions and others are getting a fraction of that.  It certainly can ruin a culture but that is up to the coaches and administrators to make sure that everyone understands the deal ahead of time.

Don

June 27th, 2022 at 1:10 PM ^

"does it ruin an NFL locker room / private business when some people make millions and others are getting a fraction of that."

Why do you think virtually every business large enough to have an HR person specifically instructs its employees to not discuss salary with their co-workers?

jwfsouthpaw

June 27th, 2022 at 1:13 PM ^

Totally with you on the handling the money aspect. Heck, tons of professional athletes go bankrupt. If you're old enough to sign a deal, it's your deal and you can squander it if you want. 

The "ruin the locker room" thing I think is more valid than you're crediting. In business, you obviously have a massive disparity between leadership (CEO) and your frontline employees, for example, and there are obviously reasons for that.

This is different. You now have unproven true freshmen making millions dollars more than experienced starters at the same position before they even step foot on campus. Sure, QBs get higher contracts relative to other positions on an NFL team, but the pay commanded by individual QBs is still largely based on the rookie wage scale and then actual performance, all within a defined salary cap that applies uniformly to all teams. That's all out the window in college now.

There's already been at least one published report of a starter basically demanding to have his NIL "match" that of incoming freshmen, or he'll walk.  That's a locker room issue waiting to happen. And there's no good way for coaches to manage it effectively because the coaches aren't the ones doing the individual deals. 

njvictor

June 27th, 2022 at 7:50 AM ^

Caspino is full of shit. His job is to lie publicly because no school is going to call him out for it. Rashada was going to go to Florida for $3M until Miami dropped $9.5M. If Nico Iamaleava got $8M to go to Tennessee, I don’t believe Rashada had the opportunity to make any more elsewhere besides Miami. This bubble is going to burst as boosters don’t get close to the ROI they want for giving millions of dollars to a teenager. The NCAA is already investigating these collectives and one has to think that some sort of regulation is coming. 

mitchewr

June 27th, 2022 at 12:45 PM ^

Honestly? I fail to see the problem. Boosters have been funneling large payments to get kids to commit for decades, so let’s all stop pretending that NIL is suddenly killing the sanctity of college football lol. 

If some rich people want to pay millions for unproven talent then more power to em! It’s their money and they can do whatever they want with it. I’d rather have the payments be public than under the table.

UMinSF

June 28th, 2022 at 12:30 AM ^

I swear, people are either intentionally obtuse or terrible with numbers. 

In a generation, things have evolved from $100 handshakes and used cars, to $10k in brown paper bags....to millions of dollars.

It's a completely different order of magnitude.

Has there always been money in college sports - sure. But that's far different than paying kids millions. C'mon.

SMU got the death penalty because they paid the equivalent of new cars. Cam Newton's case was a national scandal because papa Cecil was rumored to have gotten "well over one hundred thousand dollars". That was in 2010, and his was considered an extreme case.

Of course, TV contracts, absurd coaching salaries and relentless efforts to maximize revenue are also part of the problem. Money is killing one of my favorite pastimes.

There has always been a significant, meaningful difference between college sports and professional sports. I strongly prefer college sports. Looks like it's rapidly becoming something very different - something I'm far less enthusiastic about watching. 

I don't care AT ALL about minor league professional sports. I probably won't care very much about professional college sports.

Oh well, maybe it's just me. I sure wish the powers that be would have controlled the whole money frenzy years ago.

Please, though. At least recognize the money being talked now make the payoffs - however illegal - paid previously look trivial in comparison.

VintageRandy

June 27th, 2022 at 8:37 AM ^

If the Nico Iamaleava deal was accurate as reported, then I don’t necessarily think this number is out of the question. But this raises so many questions, namely what is the value that the booster in this scenario sees in their investment? That kind of money for a single player doesn’t make a ton of sense if they aren’t endorsing a product or advertising for your business. I think it’s a different story if you can source the $9 mil from a collective a la TAMU, but this is being reported as solely linked to John Ruiz. 

njvictor

June 27th, 2022 at 9:58 AM ^

Everyone denies everything.

This is the thing that still confuses me. If what these schools are doing is completely fine and legal, why are both recruits and coaches pretending like it's not happening? Recruits pretend like money wasn't a factor in going to certain schools in interviews and coaches are insanely vague about players getting paid

The Deer Hunter

June 27th, 2022 at 1:15 PM ^

It is totally legal, and some states have passed bills of such. 

The NCAA says it's not completely fine, in their guidelines for "inducement", which will never go anywhere. The first time the NCAA wants to take on someone like Ruiz...BOOM anti-trust lawsuit that the NCAA will lose terribly exposing them as even more powerless. Honestly maybe this has to happen to finally solve the whole fiasco. To date (that I know of) the only entity the NCAA has even looked into NIL impropriety was Ruiz...and absolutely nothing came of it. 

nybluefan

June 27th, 2022 at 8:43 AM ^

I think this is terrific.  These players deserve to be paid what the market will bear.

 

Maybe it will make educational institutions finally decide whether owning and managing minor league sports franchises are part of their mission.

Hab

June 27th, 2022 at 9:47 AM ^

I love that what the market will bear is determined exclusively by boosters who are essentially splashing cash without a reasonable expectation of an ROI.

My concern in all of this, actually, is the possibility of player abuse.  Imagine if some of these boosters are less than savory characters who, say, run a book.  I paid you x million dollars, you do as your told, they might say.  I think it's easy to overlook some of these concerns because there are so many zeros involved and going to the player.  The realist in me though...  

Don

June 27th, 2022 at 1:16 PM ^

 "I paid you x million dollars, you do as your told, they might say."

It's amazing how so many people dismiss the inevitability that human nature with all of its weaknesses and dark impulses will eventually be a factor when this kind of unregulated money gets thrown around. It's motivated reasoning on steroids.

GPCharles

June 27th, 2022 at 8:45 AM ^

What is the value of this QB's NIL?  I presume it could be determined by comparing the value of his service to that of, say, a super model.  Wouldn't any amount over that be considered a gift by the booster, subjecting the booster to the high gift tax?  Would the amount of the gift be a violation of the NIL rules?

One thing I don't get, I would think any player getting NIL money, has to perform some services in return - be in advertisements, etc.

dickdastardly

June 27th, 2022 at 8:54 AM ^

It is going to be very interesting to watch how both coaches and fellow existing roster players deal with untested players getting these ridiculous amounts of money before they ever play a down. Does jealously creep in to a degree that didn't exist before? Can egos be put in check? And no, this isn't like the NFL. Not every player is being paid and college kids don't have a contract that keeps them from leaving whenever things don't go their way. 

I am going to predict - and I hope I am wrong - that NIL is what is going to completely destroy college football as we know it unless rules can be put in place so it doesn't become a money arms race. Yeah I know, good luck with that. 

 

Don

June 27th, 2022 at 1:22 PM ^

It is going to be very interesting to watch how both coaches and fellow existing roster players deal with untested players getting these ridiculous amounts of money before they ever play a down.

Anybody who thinks boosters like Ruiz who've provided the $$ to induce that 5-star QB recruit to sign at their favorite football factory won't start demanding personal face time with head coaches who aren't giving their player enough snaps is fooling themselves.

The coaches who have demanded and gotten multi-million dollar contracts while their players get little direct financial compensation have only themselves to blame for this clown show, but I can understand why some are more than a little queasy about sailing on these new waters.