Virginia Tech stopped revenue share payments and dismissed one of its players, who expressed interest in redshirting this season, according to the player’s lawyer, bringing to light a new dilemma schools must manage in this era.
Darren Heitner, a prominent sports attorney, was hired to defend a Virginia Tech football player who was informed last Thursday that his revenue share payments would stop after the player reached out to interim head coach Phillip Montgomery and expressed an intent to redshirt.
Rather than honor that request, according to Heitner, the school removed him from the football roster, informed him that all guaranteed money from the signed revenue share agreement would be stopped immediately, revoked his access to the program and told him to return all property. Within the letter sent to the player, Heitner says it claimed he had “chosen to opt out and has committed fraud.”
“This is perhaps one of the most ludicrous positions I’ve ever seen a university take,” Heitner told CBS Sports. “We never opted out, we never committed fraud, we never made a threat, we never provided an ultimatum. We never opted out. What is going on? This is a mere request. He never said if denied he wouldn’t participate for the team. He never expressed an intention to transfer even though the window is open. He never put his name in the transfer portal.”
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In fact, Heitner said the player, who still has not entered his name into the transfer portal, would like to stay at Virginia Tech but feels like the school is forcing his hand to eventually transfer.
Players can play up to four games and still redshirt and preserve a year of eligibility as long as they haven’t done so before, making this week a big one for those decisions as some teams prepare to play their fifth games. It’s especially interesting at Virginia Tech where Brent Pry was fired after three games and players have up to 30 days to enter the transfer portal. So far, three Virginia Tech players have entered the portal.
A source around Virginia Tech believes the school gets to decide, per NCAA guidelines, if a player plays or not. An NCAA source stressed that a decision for a player to redshirt happens at the campus level and is typically a dialog between a player and coach.
NCAA rules prohibit a school from rescinding a scholarship, but with revenue sharing just beginning this past July, this serves as an early test on how much power schools have to withhold income.
CBS Sports has examined the termination agreement of one Virginia Tech player, which another source corroborated as the common language used in the Hokies’ revenue sharing deals. The agreement does not seem to feature any language that would allow the school to withhold funds if a player sat out and decided to redshirt.
Many revenue sharing contracts have language that allows a school to claw back money from a player if they decide to enter the transfer portal. However, in the case of Heitner’s client, the player is not requesting to enter the portal. Thus, Heitner’s desire for that player’s payments to continue.
“Given all those facts reconciled with the contract that he executed, merely sending a text to your coach asking if he would be so kind as to redshirt you does not constitute a breach of the agreement,” Heitner said, “nor an opportunity for them to remove him from the team or stop payments of the revenue sharing agreement. I think they have a big problem on their hands.”
Perhaps the most interesting aspect is that revenue share agreements are explicitly not pay for play, and yet stopping payment over a player’s decision to redshirt and not play would seemingly go against that. It’s an issue college sports has been trying to navigate for years now, especially in the name, image and likeness era, and can be tricky from a legal standpoint with the athletes not identified as employees.
Though, sources on the school side CBS Sports have spoken to argue that given revenue sharing contracts are inherently based on the value of a player’s likeness then their value of course decreases when the player is choosing not to play.
Heitner has already been involved in testing the legality of revenue share agreements in representing Miami defensive back Xavier Lucas, who transferred to the Hurricanes after signing a two-year revenue share agreement with Wisconsin. That situation continues to play out in courts with Wisconsin filing a lawsuit and Miami filing a motion to dismiss.
At the time, a high-ranking Big Ten source told CBS Sports that the revenue share contracts would be legally enforceable.
“No one can tell me why a contract shouldn’t be enforceable between an adult and an institution,” the Big Ten source told CBS Sports. “Contracts are enforceable in every other aspect of the commercial regulatory enterprise.”
The Virginia Tech situation also exposes the murkiness of which organization, if any, would police issues over revenue share payments. Redshirt decisions are made at the campus level, according to the NCAA, while any enforcement of cap-related issues are managed by the College Sports Commission. The CSC, however, is not involved in “adjudicating individual revenue sharing agreements between athletes and their institutions.”
Both governing bodies believe it’s a school issue. Virginia Tech did not respond to requests for comment on the situation.
That regulation murkiness can lead to stalemates like we’ve seen in Blacksburg, where these debates over NIL and rev share money almost inevitably lead to the court system to establish some sort of precedent. Heitner said Wednesday his client is weighing his legal options if a resolution can’t be reached with Virginia Tech.
The Hokies are not the only school faced with a similar issue this time of year, a situation magnified by midseason firings. One source at a school that recently fired its head coach said a player was asked to enter their game over the weekend. The player refused as it would push him past four games for the year and burn his redshirt.
As of Wednesday afternoon, three Oklahoma State players and three Hokies have entered the transfer portal. Neither UCLA nor Arkansas has had a player in the portal.
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