The NCAA has "launched an inquiry" into NIL deals at the Univ. of Miami "serious enough that enforcement staff members visited the Coral Gables campus last week to conduct interviews, most notably with billionaire UM booster John Ruiz," according to Ross Dellenger of SI.com. Sources said that NCAA investigators "spent at least two days in Miami prying into NIL deals." Ruiz said that he "spoke to NCAA enforcement staff members last week in what he termed a general 'interview.'" Ruiz has signed "115 athletes to NIL deals, most of whom attend Miami." NCAA staff members "interviewed others in Miami as well" in what is believed to be the "first serious inquiry into a college athletic department since the association lifted rules last July." Ruiz "surged into the national conversation around NIL this spring with public and brazen social media posts regarding a bevy of deals he's struck with athletes, most of them who compete for Miami." Ruiz's time in front of NCAA investigators is believed to have at least "centered on his NIL deal with men's basketball guard Nijel Pack, a Kansas State transfer who signed a two-year, $800K deal to endorse Ruiz's two companies, LifeWallet, a healthcare application, and the Cigarette (boat) Racing Team." Ruiz said that his NIL payroll is "currently at about $7 million." The NCAA's visit to Miami "isn't necessarily a surprise, but does signal that the organization's enforcement staff is seriously pursuing potential violations of its NIL guidelines," which specifically prohibit using NIL as recruiting inducements (SI.com, 6/14).
FRIENDLY CHAT? Ruiz said that the meeting "lasted more than an hour and that it was cordial and not accusatory." Ruiz: "I was asked by the university to go discuss how I put my deals together. It was big picture. I don't think it was anything accusatory or anything like 'I got you' or 'I'm going to get you.' Nothing like that" (MIAMI HERALD, 6/15). In Ft. Lauderdale, Adam Lichtenstein writes Miami football coach Mario Cristobal has "embraced NIL opportunities" for players (South Florida SUN-SENTINEL, 6/14).
WILL NCAA ACTUALLY ACT? SEC Network’s Paul Finebaum asked, “Should we hold our breath that the NCAA is going to do anything to Miami?” AL.com Senior Sports Editor John Talty: “I’ll believe it when I see it.” Talty said people are “skeptical” about the NCAA because “what we’ve seen from the NCAA over the last few years, in particular, is very little actual enforcement, very little actual investigation into these types of situations” with NIL (“The Paul Finebaum Show,” SEC Network, 6/14).
