Miami’s NIL efforts should not be impacted by John Ruiz’s financial troubles: Sources

July 30, 2023July 31, 2023 Admin

CORAL GABLES, Fla. — Could John Ruiz’s financial and legal troubles cause Miami some trouble down the road? Sure.

What the feds dig up and whether it causes any problems for the program like the Nevin Shapiro scandal did years ago all remains to be seen.

But from an immediate financial perspective, Sunday’s news is not nearly as troubling for Miami as it might’ve been before the state of Florida moved in February to modernize its NIL laws or the Canes Connection collective began to take off on its own.

A Miami Herald report Sunday cited Ruiz and his health insurance claims company LifeWallet — which bankrolled hundreds of Hurricanes athletes’ name, image and likeness deals in the past — as the target of federal civil and criminal investigations.

“A year ago we were in a different place — most of our NIL was LifeWallet. It would’ve been painful. But now, we’re in a different place,” a source familiar with Miami’s current state of NIL deals told The Athletic on Sunday after the Herald’s report made front-page news.

“In this calendar year of 2023, 80 percent of our NIL deals are through Canes Connection. LifeWallet has a minority of the deals, 15 to 20 percent maybe, and the collective over the last six months has really grown its list of supporters, names you’d recognize but that don’t want to be out there in the public eye. They like to support the university and the school, but they operate very differently. They do it quietly. Four out of every five UM deals right now are from other sources, and I expect it to be 100 percent in 2024.”

In an email sent to boosters Friday, Canes Connection co-CEO Zach Burr wrote “almost one hundred” Hurricanes student-athletes have taken advantage of NIL opportunities through Canes Connection. One of those deals included quarterback Tyler Van Dyke, who was pursued by a few programs as a transfer target in the offseason.

Back in March, when Miami’s men’s basketball program made its run to the Final Four, Ruiz told The Athletic he had 160 to 165 athletes under contract and estimated he’d spent $12 to $14 million on NIL deals with at least 20 people in his office working on those deals.

Two sources close to Miami’s NIL deals believe none of what happens with Ruiz and his business going forward will affect the athletes within the program financially because they fulfilled their end of the deals and received payment. LifeWallet’s remaining deals with Miami athletes, two sources said, have expired or are set to expire by the end of the year.

LifeWallet, once valued at more than $32 billion, is worth a fraction of that, according to The Miami Herald. The company’s stock trades for less than a quarter. LifeWallet is also reportedly facing several lawsuits from those claiming they’re owed millions for businesses acquired.

Miami’s football recruiting class was ranked No. 7 overall in the 2023 cycle in the 247Sports Composite and included two five-star offensive tackles, Francis Mauigoa and Samson Okunlola.

One of the branding ideas Ruiz had for Okunlola — nicknamed the Pancake Honcho — was to create a food truck to sell pancakes. We’ve yet to see the food truck.

Miami, coming off a 5-7 season, opens fall camp Tuesday.

The Canes’ 2024 recruiting class ranks 16th nationally and features six blue-chip recruits, including five-star receiver Joshisa Trader.