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The advent of NIL has meant the recruitment process in college football has become a more arbitrary process now. It is no longer about if a coach likes your mom’s cooking when they visit your house, trying to explain your fit in the program. Recruitment is undercut by a binary equation of how many zeroes are at the end of your cheque. This change in dynamic has afforded athletes more leverage with their programs. One CFB athlete has taken this newfound power down a treacherous, unprecedented path.

When there are large sums of money involved, issues begrudgingly follow suit. Even with something as novel as college sports. Things took a turn for the worst with the recruitment of QB Jaden Rashada to the Florida Gators two years ago. Now that he’s preparing to go to his *pause for effect* FOURTH school in that span via the transfer portal, some ugly details stemming from his time in South Florida have surfaced.

Jaden Rashada was most recently with the Georgia Bulldogs but has hit the portal. In the wake of this, his resume became conspicuous and it’s not a good look. Rashada has been with Florida, ASU, and Georgia for a couple of years. He will imminently have fewer CFB starts than teams played for. The transfer portal allows for do-overs and fresh starts, but it wasn’t meant to be used like this. If this isn’t atypical enough, Rashada is also involved in a lawsuit, the first of its kind. It pertains to false promises on the NIL front.

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Jaden Rashada has sued Billy Napier and the U of Florida, along with their NIL boosters. Rashada and his camp are citing fraud. Essentially, the lawsuit says he was promised $13.85 million for flipping his commitment to Miami in 2022 and joining the Gators instead. He held his end of the bargain; however, Florida didn’t hold theirs. The suit alleges that Billy Napier promised Rashada and his family $1 million as a “partial payment” upon signing the dotted line. But that never transpired. Filed in May of 2024, this case remains unresolved. 4 schools and suing a top program and coach for 8 figures, Jaden Rashada has inadvertently become a case in point of the potential issues stemming from the NIL era. Rashada currently has an NIL evaluation of $423,000. A far cry from the figures floating about. 

An interesting wrinkle in the lawsuit reads that Jaden Rashada had a $9.5 million offer from Miami. As a 4-star prospect out of high school, the number does line up with the general landscape. It’s a fair assumption that these off-field issues have seeped into his stock as a player. Rashada appears far from realizing his potential out of high school. At the very least, he’ll hope his predicament is a beacon for his peers to be more vigilant. Some of the stuff in the lawsuit hints at this.

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Jaden Rashada could begrudgingly be the ‘fall guy’ for the rest of collegiate sport

What’s your perspective on:

Is Jaden Rashada a victim of the NIL chaos, or is he exploiting the system?

Have an interesting take?

It’s not transparent whether Jaden Rashada was actually defrauded by broken promises or not. As aforementioned, this scenario is the first of its kind. The verdict of this lawsuit will unequivocally be a watershed moment in CFB. Since this whole ordeal between Florida and Rashada transpired 2 years ago, NIL functionality, as well as the numbers, have increased incrementally. It’s not ideal that one player had to be potentially shafted, but this case should be preventative.

“Sadly, unethical and illegal tactics like this are more and more commonplace in the Wild West that is today’s college football landscape,” read an excerpt from the lawsuit. It proceeds to lament Billy Napier, the boosters, and the school for its perceived actions. “As the first scholar-athlete to take a stand against such egregious behavior by adults who should know better, Jaden seeks to hold Defendants accountable for their actions and to expose the unchecked abuse of power that they shamelessly wielded.” The NCAA is conducting its own investigation into this deal as well. The powers that be have already lost one lawsuit involving a player.

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Rashada will want to put this in the proverbial rear-view mirror and kick his career into gear. He’s still got enough years of eligibility, owing to the fact he’s only played 3 games so far at ASU, to turn things around. He’ll hope programs don’t have prejudicial notions, or maybe even rational ones, about his erratic career graph across so many teams. One school taking a shot at him is all Jaden Rashada will yearn for.

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Is Jaden Rashada a victim of the NIL chaos, or is he exploiting the system?