ROSEMONT, Illinois – During a phone conversation in December, a UNLV assistant coach put the following to quarterback Matthew Sluka: Come here and play and we’ll pay you $100,000.

At least that’s what Sluka’s agent Marcus Cromartie claims.

Nine months later, the Rebels are undefeated, ranked in the top 25, and currently the Group of 5 favorite for a spot in the College Football Playoffs. But Sluka is no longer part of the team because he was not paid the promised amount.

The decision sent shockwaves through college sports at a sensitive moment for the industry and during an important week: The sport’s leading figures, the Division I conference commissioners and NCAA President Charlie Baker, are meeting for their annual meeting at the Big Ten headquarters in a Chicago suburb on Wednesday and Thursday.

The meeting comes on the eve of a key deadline: Thursday, when the NCAA, major conferences and lawyers must file a response to the antitrust settlement with the House of Representatives. The multi-billion dollar agreement would give the sport a direct revenue-sharing arrangement with athletes and, perhaps more importantly given the situation, provide transparency and more binding agreements directly with schools.

Both sides of the UNLV situation – Sluka’s agent and UNLV – have spoken. What is emerging is a truth that is not uncommon in this unwieldy and complicated world of college sports, where schools rely on third parties and sponsors to fund their football rosters: Not everyone is on the same proverbial page.

“It starts with full transparency,” said Cromartie, an agent with Equity Sports who represents Sluka. “We need to allow these negotiations and these written agreements and not impose so many regulations on them. The school and the coaches negotiate, but you let someone else (collectives) pay for it and hope they get the money from sponsors. It’s very chaotic.”

While Sluka was promised a $100,000 NIL deal by the coaches, Cromartie said the collective has no such agreement in place, said Rob Sine, CEO of Blueprint Sports, which operates the UNLV collective. The collective made Sluka a one-time payment of $3,000. As recently as the weekend, collective officials were discussing a monthly payment of $3,000 before the quarterback decided this week to use his redshirt and leave the team (players can play in up to four games in a season and still use a redshirt).

“The collective may not have agreed to $100,000, but the coaches have,” Cromartie told Yahoo Sports on Wednesday.

The school, meanwhile, issued a statement claiming that Sluka’s agent had made financial demands that it interpreted as a violation of NCAA rules prohibiting “pay-for-play.”

“UNLV does not participate in such activities or respond to subtle threats,” the university said. “UNLV has honored all previously agreed-upon scholarships for Matthew Sluka.”

The problem goes back to Sluka’s attitude.

In December, an assistant coach gave Sluka the commitment, Cromartie said. Sluka’s recruiter was UNLV offensive coordinator Brennan Marion. The quarterback came to campus this summer and participated in preseason training camps before Cromartie began “pushing” the coaches to give him the $100,000 contract.

He then reached out to the collective in late August and introduced himself to Sine in an email. Sine declined to negotiate with Cromartie because he is not a licensed attorney in the state of Nevada and told him to speak directly with the school and coaching staff instead.

With one year of eligibility remaining and not yet using his redshirt, Sluka decided he would not play without pay.

“If Matt hadn’t had another year of eligibility, he would have stayed,” Cromartie said.

All of this is happening as the Rebels are off to their best start in years. They are 3-0 after beating power conference teams Kansas and Houston, host Fresno State this Saturday and face Syracuse in another power conference game on Oct. 4. They are ranked for the first time since the program moved up to Division I in 1978.

Head coach Barry Odom, who is in his second season, has UNLV in the running for a playoff berth. The top-ranked conference champion in the Group of 5 will get a spot in the new 12-team field. Sluka, a dual-threat QB who transferred from FCS Holy Cross, leads the team in rushing (253 yards) and passing (318) and has scored six touchdowns.

When asked if Sluka would return to the team, Cromartie said, “That’s up to Barry Odom. Matt has been open about wanting to play football, but $3,000 a month for the next four months just isn’t fair.”

Sluka was removed from the program’s online roster.

The situation sheds light, or perhaps a shadow, on the troubled world of college football recruiting since the introduction of NIL in July 2021, when the NCAA lifted rules on players receiving compensation from endorsement and commercial contracts. To recruit and retain players, promoters pool millions of their dollars to essentially pay players salaries.

The landscape could soon change.

The NCAA and the major leagues reached a settlement in May with the plaintiff’s attorneys in the House case – originally over zero back payments – that includes a system of profit sharing for athletes. At the heart of the agreement are third-party payments by sponsors, a concept that major league leaders want to limit or eliminate through the settlement.

But at a hearing last month, U.S. District Judge Claudia Wilken, who is presiding over the case in California, did not approve the settlement because she objected to the settlement’s provision that governs and caps the booster payments. The plaintiff’s lawyers in the House are expected to file a brief by Thursday to explain the provision.

The settlement provides schools with the ability to pay millions of dollars directly to athletes through contracts with the schools. It requires that payments to third parties or sponsors meet what are known as “fair market value” standards and go through a new clearinghouse and enforcement process – a system detailed in this Yahoo Sports article.

The NCAA’s current policies are unclear on many issues related to NIL payments, and the association has suspended many enforcement actions and investigations on the issue because they are hampered by court rulings.

For example, a preliminary injunction in Tennessee allows collectives to negotiate with athletes before they sign up. Some also interpret this ruling to mean that collectives are allowed to sign an agreement with athletes before they sign up.

Cromartie says Sluka did not sign an agreement before enrolling because of these unclear terms.

“People ask, ‘Why didn’t they sign anything?'” he said. “You can’t sign anything until you sign up.”

Meanwhile, UNLV is embroiled in another ongoing saga: The school is at the center of the conference’s realignment as part of the Pac-12’s attempt to rebuild the league by poaching Mountain West programs. The Pac-12 has already agreed to terms with five Mountain West schools and offered UNLV a term sheet.

The school continues to explore options while Mountain West makes an aggressive attempt to retain students. The conference is offering its seven programs a new version of a membership agreement with sizable signing bonuses. The agreements are binding only if all seven sign.