South Florida Sun-Sentinel (Sunday)
Wong stays, Ruiz pays, UM at NIL forefront
He was Tyreek Hill. He was James Harden. lsaiah Wong was any athlete who saw the market change and wanted to renegotiate his contract, only to be stymied by the team’s management.
“Absolutely not,’’ John Ruiz said of re-doing his deal.
So Wong considered leaving for more money elsewhere.
“We’d like him to stay’‘’ Ruiz said.
This was labeled the downfall of Western civilization, because Wong is a University of Miami basketball guard, Ruiz is CEO of a corporation and the college sports world tilts in a manner many don’t recognize. Others do: It’s capitalism.
Let’s cut to the end, where Wong sleeps on his Thursday demands and decided by Friday afternoon to stay at Miami. So this wasn’t a full revolution in the sense of everyone changing college teams for money. But there’s the sense of that ahead.
Welcome to the new world where Ruiz plays the role of Christopher Columbus. He’s out front like no one in the country in a manner Miami loves. He’s making it rain players for their programs. He’s spent $5 million and signed 111 players (most at Miami) to NIL deals.
“We have a $10 million budget,’’ he said.
So he’s halfway there? “We’re early in the year,’’ he said.
This sits ugly with people who want to pretend college sports is pure and amateur-ish — even when everyone knows it isn’t. Ruiz’s shows the new world’s possibilities. Wong’s shows its complexity.
Two weeks ago, Wong and Ruiz negotiated a name, image and likeness deal. Kansas State guard Nigel Pack then entered the transfer portal, and Miami coach Jim Larrañaga was interested.
Larrañaga said he looked at the roster and saw a veteran core of three players leaving his team that made the Elite Eight last year. That’s four if Wong goes into the NBA. Larrañaga needed defensive rebounding and 3-point shooting.
Ruiz said he got a call from Pack’s agent, Adam Papas,
regarding an NIL deal. They agreed on a two-year, $800,000 deal with the use of a luxury car.
“Ultimately, the same agent that signed Nigel Pack with me ended up representing Isaiah Wong and Jordan Miller,” Ruiz said. “I guess Isaiah felt he should be getting more money.”
That’s how it works in pro sports, right? And college is the pros now? Sort of. But not really. Here’s where Ruiz says some education needs to happen — and he’s not talking higher education.
Ruiz is planning a seminar for lawyers, agents, journalists and whoever else to explain the NIL world. Wong, he says, might have a valid case for equal pay if this was about performance on the basketball court.
“This isn’t about how good an athlete you are, how many points you score or touchdowns you throw for,” Ruiz said. “This is about name image and likeness. This is about a player’s value and what an organization can extract from that relationship.
“Players looking at athletic talent. I’m not looking at athletic talent by itself.”
Since Pack went through the transfer portal, there was added excitement when he joined Miami. When he allowed his contract terms to be announced, that added to the interest, too.
Ruiz said his companies, LifeLock and Cigarette Racing Team, got five million views on Twitter by Pack’s announcement.
“For next season, Nigel Pack will be measured by, ‘Is he worth that deal or not?’ When that happens, it’s a winning proposition for the player and the business. It’s eyeballs focusing on him.”
He adds of Wong: “I’m owner of a company negotiating a deal,” Ruiz said. “What’s happening, I can’t fault the players or the families. This is a new industry, a new phenomena, and it’s not fair in some way they’re having to make very difficult decisions.”
The larger question: Is it good for college sports? In some manner, it brings underthe-table money above the table. That’s good, right? Rules have to be followed, too. Ruiz and Miami say they’re following them explicitly.
“Here’s my thought on the NILs and transfer portal,’’ Larrañaga said. “We’re just going to follow the rules, whatever they are, and put together a quality ACC team and program.”
Larrañaga said he wasn’t going to talk about NILs to even offer a whiff of impropriety. Asked a general question about them, he said: “If I start talking about it, then I’m talking about it. I’m not going to talk about it.”
The NCAA’s policy says schools in states with NIL laws have to follow them and those in states without NIL laws have to come up with a reasonable rule to follow. In other words, the NCAA is making it up as it goes along. Florida’s law says athletes can’t get NIL deals based on enrolling in a school — in other words, they can’t be used in recruiting a player.
There’s a lot of wink-wink involved here. The school isn’t involved in NILs. But its big booster is. Dan Raben, Miami’s assistant athletic director for compliance, said the school is allowed to examine NIL contracts before players sign them, to assure rules are followed.
“We’re excited about student-athletes [getting NILs],” Raben said. “We’re just making sure everyone is following the rules.”
The law also specifies that scholarships awarded to an athlete by a college may not be reduced as a result of an athlete earning compensation or obtaining an agent for an NIL.
Miami football coach Mario Cristobal and Larrañaga will have a new component of money inside their teams. Then again, they wouldn’t have these players if it weren’t for money — Ruiz’s money, primarily.
There’s always been a tug-of-war between enjoying college athletics and understanding the indentured-servant structure of the NCAA and athletes.
As coaches become tycoons and universities treat weight rooms and athletic dorms like an arms race, shouldn’t players get some of that money?
Now they are. A contract like Pack’s and a demand like Wong’s is the end of college sports as some see it. It’s true, too. But from freshmen being eligible to the one-anddone rule for basketball players, there’s always been change to bring college sports into a new era.
All that money means the players finally get some. And if they want some more like Wong? Go find someone to pay you.