After the entire Gators HC Billy Napier and Jaden Rashada controversy and lawsuit, you’d think that colleges would start taking this entire NIL thing much more seriously, right? Well, UNLV sure didn’t. Rebels QB Matthew Sluka was the first one to quit the team mid-2024 season. Back on Tuesday, we got the update that Matthew Sluka would be utilizing his redshirt to leave the team and hit the transfer portal over “unfulfilled commitments”. 

And now, following Sluka’s footsteps, Rebels RB Michael Allen announces that he would be leaving as well. Bleacher Report took to X on September 26th to report regarding the entire scene. “RB Michael Allen, UNLV’s 4th leading rusher, announced he will be sitting out the remainder of the season and entering the transfer portal,” Bleacher Report mentioned in their post. Allen’s reasoning behind utilizing his redshirt and sitting it off for the remainder of the season is something similar to what Sluka had mentioned.

“Expectations for opportunities unfortunately were not met,” Allen had written on his announcement post. This is kind of wild. More so because after 1984, this is the first time the Rebels are standing on a 3-0 season start. Losing both their RB and QB at the same time would be a bad hit for the team. A fan was quick to point out that this marks the start of the NCAA’s downfall. “Downfall of NCAA football,” they noted.

Deion Sanders was right when he noted that NIL deals will become the bane of football. Coach Prime’s major concern was that these players should never be lured into a roster. Money shouldn’t come before the game. Sluka’s decision to leave was fueled by the fact that he was promised a sum of $100K if he transferred over to the Rebels from the Holy Cross. However, none of that money ever reached Sluka’s account, and he decided to step off.

With Allen now being added to the list of players leaving, the future does not look good for the Rebels. While Allen’s leave for due to “on-field opportunities” and not “NIL agreements”, who knows what might’ve actually happened behind the scenes. What we do know right now is that the fans have begun their scrutiny of the UNLV management.

One fake promise a day, takes your best players away

“Yea unlv ruined their chances of getting a good prospect,” a fan was quick to point out. The Rebels would be losing out on their 4th best lead rusher and also a QB who has been slowly making waves. Quite sad. Following this, one fan decided to point fingers at something different. “The transfer portal has ruined college football! It will never be the same!” they noted.

Now see, you cannot blame the portal for this. Just like Coach Prime had mentioned, “Don’t put the bag in front of the game”. We all saw what Rashada did when he found out that the promises Napier had made were fake. So, when you try to lure in a player by making fake monetary promises, if that player doesn’t get that benefit, then they will lash out.

Another fan mentioned, “So, did other players realize UNLV was trying to scam them with fake deals and are now tryna did lol?” It kind of feels like Allen realized that what happened with Sluka could happen to him as well. While he did state that the decision to sit it out was not influenced by any NIL deal, if he had decided to stick around, his skills at the Rebels would end up being wasted.

Finally, a fan pointed out, “unlv didnt pay ANYBODY huh lol.” Maybe we might see some more players call it quits from the Rebels’ roster. Who knows man, this is CFB, anything is possible at this point.