The NCAA has made a significant move in the new world of Name, Image, and Likeness (NIL) deals in college athletics. On Friday, the NCAA issued its first-ever ruling in an NIL infraction case involving Miami women’s basketball players, Haley and Hanna Cavinder, who transferred from Fresno State in 2022.
Miami head coach Katie Meier was suspended for three games at the start of the 2022-23 season for committing Level II violations by arranging a meeting between the Cavinder sisters and Miami booster, John Ruiz, who is the CEO of LifeWallet and a known supporter of the university. The NCAA ruled that the dinner at Ruiz’s home, where the parties did not discuss NIL opportunities but he promoted the school, was an infraction because boosters are not authorized to have in-person, off-campus contact with prospects or pay for their meals.
The NCAA, the university, and enforcement staff agreed on the violations and penalties, which included one year of probation, 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, and a 10% suspension for the head coach, served during the first three contests of the 2022-23 season.
The Cavinder twins, who have a massive social media following with 4.3 million TikTok followers, were not penalized, as the NCAA’s stance is to not penalize athletes themselves for NIL-adjacent infractions.
The Division I Committee on Infractions panel said in the resolution, “Boosters are involved with prospects and student-athletes in ways the NCAA membership has never seen or encountered. … In that way, addressing impermissible booster conduct is critical, and the disassociation penalty presents an effective penalty available to the Committee on Infractions.”
This ruling shows that the NCAA is taking NIL violations seriously and will continue to enforce its rules in this new landscape of college athletics.
