NCAA Issues First NIL Penalties, Hits UMiami Over Recruitment Of Cavinder Twins
Friday, February 24, 2023 at 04:08PM By Barry Janoff
February 24, 2023: In what is being seen as the first official penalty in the Name, Image and Likeness era, the NCAA has placed the University of Miami on probation for one year, suspended women’s basketball head coach Katie Meier for three games and issued other sanctions against the school.
The situation is a direct result of what the NCAA said occurred when Meier “violated NCAA rules when she facilitated impermissible contact between two prospects and a booster, according to an agreement released by the Div. I Committee on Infractions.”
The NCAA did not name the booster or athletes in its decision, but were identified as Miami-based lawyer and University of Miami booster John Ruiz, and athletes Haley Cavinder and Hanna Cavinder, according to AP Sports and the Miami Herald.
“In facilitating the contact, the head coach also violated rules on publicity before signing and, because of her direct involvement, she violated head coach responsibility rules,” according to the NCAA.
The NCAA said Meier met the booster at a university event for administrators, staff, donors and potential donors.
“Although the head coach did not personally know the booster, she was aware that he was a prominent businessman and involved in name, image and likeness activities with student-athletes at the school.
“At the event, the booster and his family approached the coach to talk about the prospects' upcoming visit to the university. The head coach later called the booster to learn more about him and his work, unaware that the booster had already been in touch with the prospects' agent, until the booster informed the coach that the prospects' agent had initially declined a meeting during their upcoming visit to campus.
“Regardless, the booster informed the head coach that he was ‘here to help’ and wanted women's basketball to be ‘huge’ at Miami.”
Boosters are not authorized recruiters and cannot have in-person, off-campus contact with prospects, according to the NCAA, “and when the prospects visited the booster's home, it violated recruiting rules. Similarly, when the booster provided the prospects with a meal, it violated inducement rules.”
The NCAA said Meier's “involvement in arranging contact between the prospects and a booster violated NCAA recruiting rules. The university, head coach and enforcement staff also agreed that the coach's discussion with the booster about the prospects violated NCAA recruiting rules pertaining to publicity before the recruits signed with the school.”
“The NCAA probed the actions of booster John Ruiz, who has signed several Miami athletes to NIL deals,” according to AP Sports.
“Among them are women’s basketball players Haley and Hanna Cavinder, who transferred to Miami after meeting with Ruiz — though the Cavinders told the NCAA the meeting had nothing to do with their decision to play for the Hurricanes.”
According to the Miami Herald, “Ruiz, 56, previously told the Miami Herald he had met with NCAA representatives on UM’s campus in June 2022 to share information about the realm of name, image and likeness — commonly known as NIL — and how he puts his deals together.
“He has paid millions of dollars in NIL deals to more than 100 athletes, most from Miami, to promote his companies LifeWallet and/or Cigarette Racing Team. And he has posted details of many deals on social media.”
Haley and Hanna Cavinder, who played on the Fresno State women’s basketball team for three years before transferring to Miami in 2022 for their senior year, are among the most high-profile college athletes regarding NIL deals and social media followers.
They have some $2 million in NIL deals, according to Forbes, handled by Everett Sports Management.
They each have about 4 million followers on TikTok, 500,000 on Instagram, 82,000 subscribers to their YouTube Channel and 14,000 followers on Twitter.
According to the NCAA, penalties as approved by the Committee on Infractions, include:
• One year of probation.
• A 10% suspension (three games total) for the head coach, which has already been served during the first three games for the 2022-23 season.
• A $5,000 fine plus 1% of the women's basketball budget.
• A 7% reduction in the number of official visits in women's basketball during the 2022-23 academic year.
• A reduction of nine recruiting-person days in women's basketball during the 2022-23 academic year.
• A three-week prohibition against recruiting communications by women's basketball staff beginning with the open date of the Transfer Portal (from March 13 through April 2, 2023).
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