Company CEO plans to sue NCAA

Nearly two weeks ago, the NCAA sanctioned the Miami Hurricanes women’s basketball team. The NCAA ruled that head coach Katie Meier inadvertently arranged contact between an alleged booster and a pair of players, twin sisters Hanna and Haley Cavinder.

The team was placed on probation for one year, and Meier served a three-game suspension among other penalties. The “booster” in question doesn’t believe he’s a booster and isn’t pleased the NCAA is labeling him as one.

In a phone interview with On3, LifeWallet CEO John Ruiz told them he plans to sue the NCAA “within the next 10 business days.”

“The main gist of it is I’m not a booster,” Ruiz said Wednesday. “Therefore, the categorization of me as a booster is legally incorrect. There has already been an agreement in place. I think the university could petition them back to shorten the probation period.”

The NCAA feels Ruiz is a booster because they think he applies to their definition of a booster. On3 said, “The NCAA defines a booster as ‘representatives of the institution’s athletic interests.’ That classification is earned by providing a donation in order to obtain season tickets, participating in an athletics program, making financial contributions to the school, providing employment for enrolled athletes, assisting in the recruitment of high school prospects or assisting in providing benefits to enrolled athletes.”

As On3 noted, “[Ruiz’s] case against the NCAA will center on the idea that he is not a Miami booster because his company struck the deals with athletes. If the NCAA views him as a Hurricanes booster, Ruiz wondered how the organization would classify him if he approached athletes at Florida, Florida State, Georgia and Alabama with NIL deals.”

It remains to be seen what will happen. If this case goes anywhere, it may have some unintended ramificaitons regarding the NIL process.

[On3]