In 2021, the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) changed its longstanding rules that prohibited student-athletes from making money off their names, images, and likenesses (NIL). With loose rules governing the NIL world and students at larger schools and in higher-profile sports earning insane amounts of money, the last two years have been a bit of a Wild West atmosphere in college sports.
Many people who have paid attention to the NIL landscape have wondered when a school would violate the scant rules that govern NIL. And now, the NCAA has issued some sanctions to the University of Miami’s women’s basketball program over NIL-related violations.
The sanctions involve the recruiting of twin transfer players Haley and Hanna Cavinder and alumnus John Ruiz.
“Ruiz has signed more than 100 Hurricanes athletes to NIL deals to promote his company LifeWallet, some of them reportedly worth hundreds of thousands of dollars,” reports ESPN’s Dan Murphy. “His conversations and deals with athletes who have transferred to Miami in a number of sports have come under NCAA scrutiny in the past year.”
The Cavinders are somewhat notorious for cashing in on their college fame. They have over 3 million followers on TikTok and even signed a NIL deal with the WWE. They’re each worth roughly $1 million thanks to NIL deals. Ruiz met with the Cavinder twins over dinner with their parents at Ruiz’s home in April 2022, and they transferred to Miami shortly after that.
Wishing the Cavinder twins all the best in their quest to find their next home to play basketball. Amazing young ladies as well as mom and dad. @CavinderHaley @CavinderHanna @johnnyruiz4 @alex7ruiz @cristinaeruiz pic.twitter.com/yr0Cz0XsLk
— John H. Ruiz, CEO LifeWallet and Attorney at Law (@JohnHRuiz) April 14, 2022
“Although the NCAA did not reference Haley or Hanna by name in its report, it referenced a booster’s tweet with two prospective athletes on April 13. That, of course, was Ruiz and the Cavinders,” reports Grayson Weir at Outkick. “According to the resolution, the NCAA began its investigation in May in part because of the tweet.”
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The sanctions and penalties only involve Miami’s women’s basketball program. Neither Ruiz nor the Cavinder twins have to suffer any consequences.
“Hurricanes women’s basketball must pay a $5,000 fine, in addition to a fine worth 1% of the program’s budget. It will also serve a year of probation, which includes minor recruiting and official visit reductions,” Weir reports.
Miami Head Coach Katie Meier — the winningest women’s hoops coach in the school’s history — served a three-game suspension at the beginning of the season over the violation.
“For over 30 years, I have led my programs with integrity and have been a collaborative partner with the NCAA,” Meier said in a statement released Friday. “Collegiate athletics is in transformation, and any inadvertent mistake I made was prior to a full understanding of implemented guardrails and the clarification issued by the NCAA in May. We all look forward to a time when there is a national solution to help our student-athletes, coaches, and institutions.”
It will be interesting to see the ramifications of these violations and sanctions on NIL in general. Will it lead the NCAA to create more stringent rules? Will the Wild West of college sports be tamed? It’s definitely an interesting time to be a fan of college sports.
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