The NCAA’s plan to investigate name, image and likeness deals is no longer an empty threat.
College athletics’ governing body has launched an investigation into the University of Miami so serious that law enforcement officials visited the Coral Gables campus last week for interviews, specifically with billionaire UM booster John Ruiz.
NCAA investigators spent at least two days in Miami penetrating NIL deals, multiple sources tell Sports Illustrated. Ruiz was contacted Tuesday morning and confirmed he spoke to NCAA enforcement officials in what he called a general “interview” last week.
“I’m very comfortable with what we’re doing. I have nothing to hide,” Ruiz told SI. “It went really well. The NCAA is trying to manage this sudden change in environment. They’re trying to figure out how the landscape works.”
Ruiz has signed 115 athletes to NIL deals, most of whom are visiting Miami.
Matt Cashore/USA TODAY Sports
NCAA officials also questioned others in Miami in what is believed to be the first serious investigation by a collegiate athletic department since the federation last July repealed rules that once prohibited athletes from receiving compensation for their likeness. Several schools received letters of inquiry from the NCAA last fall, but this is a new series of more serious reviews from the organization.
Ruiz, a passionate supporter of UM athletics whose three children attended school, broke into the national conversation around NIL this spring with public and outrageous social media posts about a bevy of deals he’s struck with athletes, most of which are competing for Miami. Although he declined to provide details, Ruiz’s time before NCAA investigators is believed to have at least focused on his NIL deal with men’s basketball guard Nijel Pack, a transfer from Kansas State who signed a two-year, $800,000 deal to support Ruiz’s two businesses, LifeWallet, a healthcare application, and the Cigarette (boat) Racing Team.
He’s one of 115 athletes Ruiz has signed since NIL’s inception, and while he acknowledges most of them come to Miami, he’s signed players from North Carolina and FIU, he says. Ruiz says his NIL payroll is currently around $7 million.
He describes the NCAA’s visit to Miami not as an “investigation,” but rather as an investigation to learn more about the evolving landscape of NIL.
“Many NCAA bylaws are difficult to reconcile with the ability and right to make NIL deals,” he says. “I think the NCAA is beginning to come to terms with the fact that they are unable to navigate within the [state] NIL laws and their own statutes. There is an internal conflict.
“I found the people at the NCAA extremely pleasant. Their job is to make sure they gather enough information and create a working standard for everyone. There has to be better regulation.”
A Miami spokesman provided a statement to SI: “Like our peer institutions across the country, the University of Miami communicates with NCAA staff to ensure compliance with applicable NCAA regulations. In accordance with NCAA rules and to preserve the integrity of the review, the university cannot comment on the specifics of the matter.”
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The NCAA visit to Miami is not exactly a surprise, but it does signal that the organization’s enforcement staff is seriously pursuing potential violations of its NIL policy, which specifically prohibits the use of NIL as a recruitment inducement. in one Letter John Duncan, NCAA chief of enforcement, assured member schools last week that the federation plans to open investigations and that it is “not focused on athlete eligibility,” signaling that penalties for violations should instead be on the school and the Boosters would fall, who could be separated from their colleges. Duncan’s letter followed a clarification of the NIL guidelines released earlier this spring, in part as a result of outspoken and frustrated sports administrators at the state of NIL.
In a matter of months, a NIL era that began last July with mega deals reserved mostly for the country’s top athletes and social media stars has turned into a rapidly escalating bidding war for elite football and men’s basketball players developed. At many top-flight Power 5 schools, a single booster or group of them – collectives – have pooled funds to create player salary pools to fund entire teams. Some of them are giving away $50,000 or more to each athlete in deals disguised as NIL, administrators tell SI.
Ruiz has been in the crosshairs of many college leaders for some time, pushing himself and the Hurricanes into the spotlight with his sometimes brazen posts on Twitter. For example, he used his own Twitter account to announce Pack’s engagement in Miami as well as the player’s NIL deal with his companies. The tweet drew five million impressions almost immediately, something Ruiz keeps pointing to as an early return on his investment. The post also dropped collegiate sports’ figurative jaws, with critics pointing out the audacity of such a move and the dollar numbers.
In an interview with SI in April, Ruiz shrugged.
“We believe our platform is the only one in the country that can truly withstand any attack from the NCAA,” he said. “A majority of people do not understand the law. Their first reaction is, if it’s not my team, it’s no use! The reality is there is a reward.”
Whether the NCAA can legally impose sanctions related to NIL is a matter of debate. In the face of the NCAA’s defeat in the Supreme Court last summer and the reversal of state NIL statutes, the organization is somewhat handcuffed to enforcing its own policies and risks unsuccessful challenges to state statutes and legal challenges from wealthy ones Booster. In many cases, boosters and collectives that have documented evidence of a NIL transaction with an athlete — a consideration — appear to be in the clear, many legal experts say.
Under NCAA statutes and many state laws, boosters are prohibited from inducing prospects through NIL. And while officials say many NIL deals being made across the country are fairly obvious incentives, savvy donors and collective CEOs are smart at drafting deals. They do not bind an athlete to a particular school, are agreed upon after the athlete commits or signs, and involve consideration.
“It might look like an incentive and smell like an incentive, but it’s hard to prove it’s an incentive,” says a Power 5 athletic director.
“I don’t see how they’re going to enforce it,” Big 12 commissioner Bob Bowlsby told SI last month.
Meanwhile, in Miami, Ruiz is confident his company is following the rules and has documentation to prove it. How did he feel after his NCAA interview?
“Spectacular,” replies Ruiz.
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