The Florida leg of the Jaden Rashada saga has come to an end with the school officially releasing him from his letter of intent, a source with knowledge of the situation has confirmed to the Sports Illustrated following a report by On3 Sports on Friday morning.
What remains in Gainesville is the most confusing name, image, and likeness fiasco in the 18-month history of this collegiate sports era. At some point, something like this was always bound to happen. It will almost certainly happen again, as recruitment never stops and a thinly regulated market continues with mixed answers as to who and how the genie is put back in the bottle.
This is the purest example of a fledgling market going through growing pains. But put the cold business talk aside for a second, and remember that the tragedy is that despite an agreement originally signed with one of Florida’s third-party collectives, the Gator Collective, Rashada received at most “a very minuscule sum ”, if anything at all, out of his four-year contract set at between $13 and 14 million to appear in Florida in November. It’s doubtful he’ll get anything close to that at his new school, as according to industry insiders On3 spoke to, the current fee for a quarterback is around $750,000 a year and only exceeds $1 million in specific cases. And yet, Rashada was expected to receive about $3.25 million a year in installments over the life of the business.
The blame game for this starts with the NCAA, which has passed responsibility for athlete compensation for over a century, allowing hidden payments to flourish. The organization outsourced player payments to third parties, a path of least resistance. From this, a growing industry of collectives has blossomed, where donors fund payments to athletes. At the a statement released on TwitterThe Gator Collective (one of three ostensibly operating to serve UF athletes) explained how it compensates the school’s athletes of all disciplines.
Q: Does the Gator collective facilitate third-party negotiated and funded NIL deals?
A: Yes.
The GC writes contracts that its members’ contributions fund directly. GC also writes contracts that third parties, such as companies, negotiate and finance.
Gator Collective sits in the middle of a web of parties. First, there is Rashda’s camp, including her parents and NIL representatives. Then there’s UF’s own athletics program, which tries to keep the collective at bay so that it truly remains a third party. This can create a problem: if, say, head coach Billy Napier or athletic director Scott Stricklin are too involved, that’s a bad thing, and if they don’t know anything, it’s just as bad as in the 1980s, when rogue reinforcements they were handing out cars and money. Finally, there are the people who fund NIL deals directly, from regular donors who pledge $10 to those who may be called upon to donate millions, as would be the case with the Rashada deal. It’s doubtful you’ll find their names on any contracts, but the faith that dozens of deals had been done before led everyone involved to believe this one would work. Now that it didn’t, the blame game is complicated on a third-party Russian doll overwhelmed by fandom and competition.
A big unsolved mystery in all of this is how exactly Rashada’s deal, which by market estimates should have been worth at most $5 or $6 million, ended up more than double that amount. In early December, it became clear that the collective would not be able to cover the amount owed. He sent what sources called a “basic” termination letter to Rashada’s camp. Whether news of the termination reached Rashada himself is unclear, given the fact that he still signed his National Letter of Intent on December 21 with Florida, and went to the Under Armor All-American game in early January, no giving no indication that he was wavering his decision in several interviews. According to a source, he and his family stayed in the Orlando area for a few more days before heading back to California. On the weekend of January 8, it became apparent that Rashada was not on campus with the other signatories of the Florida Class of 2023 who enrolled early.
Rashada now has scheduled visits with the state of Colorado and Arizona after her falling out with Florida.
Matt Pendleton/USA TODAY NETWORK
During Rashada’s recruitment, sources stated that he wanted to be in Florida. Whether his camp could have tried to call the Gator Collective’s bluff (imagining he’d have to get the money somehow) and/or placate him with assurances that everything would work out is unclear.
Rashada’s recruiting had already been a whirlwind before all of this happened, drawing the attention of NCAA infraction officials, according to multiple sources. He originally committed to Miami in June, with the Canes beating Texas A&M and Florida, among others. That came with the drama surrounding who actually represented him at the time. (As a California resident, Rashada was able to sign an NIL contract as a high school student.)
Rashada ended up moving to UF in the fall, which was the rumored result of the original NIL fiasco in the summer. At his signing day press conference, Napier said that Rashada would “come soon” after playing the Under Armor All-American game in Orlando on January 3 and signing up for the spring semester. The press conference was postponed while Florida waited for Rashada to submit her signed letter of intent, causing some anxiety in the fanbase.
Whether fair or unfair, this situation reflects poorly on Napier, who could have enjoyed an offseason win after a regular season without enough. Expecting fans to really understand the nuances of collective structure is difficult, even when the situation is simple.
Where the Florida quarterback situation goes from here is anyone’s guess. Standout prospect Anthony Richardson is out of the NFL after an up-and-down season, his backup Jalen Kitna was fired from the team following an arrest for possession of child pornography. Florida was active on the transfer portal, linked with former Wake Forest QB Sam Hartman and Coastal Carolina’s Grayson McCall. Hartman was transferred to Notre Dame and McCall returned to Coastal after entering the portal. The Gators ended up with Wisconsin’s Graham Mertz, a former star recruit who had not consistently lived up to his potential in Madison. Rashada could be in a position to have significant playing time early in his career. Florida’s QB room also includes Jack Miller, who started in the Las Vegas Bowl against Oregon State and went 13-of-22 for 180 yards. Four-star DJ Lagway, one of Texas’ top 2024 quarterbacks, committed in December and told 247Sports that he plans to return to Gainesville for a Jan. 28 visit.
For Rashada, he reportedly has visits scheduled with the state of Colorado and Arizona, her father Harlen’s alma mater. There are no winners here other than the school Rashada will eventually sign with to begin her college career. As is often the case in recruiting deals gone wrong, the adults in the situation let the youth down, from his parents, to his agents, to those in and around the Gator Collective ecosystem. No one is innocent and no one is completely to blame, and that’s the problem.
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