The Cavinder Twins Case: NCAA’s First NIL Ruling?

Mar 6, 2023 Miami, FL

University of Miami Basketball’s Cavinder twins, Haley and Hanna, who were ranked among the top NIL earners by Sports Illustrated, found themselves at the epicenter of the NIL universe this week as subjects of what many have deemed the NCAA’s first NIL ruling. The case centers around the propriety of a dinner for the Cavinder twins and family, hosted by Miami mega-booster John Ruiz, prior to their commitment to the UM basketball team. The NCAA’s Committee of Infractions, which, ostensibly was alerted to the potential violation by Ruiz’ social media post touting the dinner, ruled that the dinner was a “recruiting inducement” which constituted a “Level II Infraction”, or a “significant breach of conduct”. Accordingly, in a resolution negotiated between NCAA Enforcement and the school, penalties, including a fine of $5,000.00 plus 1% of the program’s budget, one year probation for the athletic program, and certain recruiting restrictions, were imposed.

One of the more notable aspects of the negotiated resolution was the decision to suspend UM’s women’s basketball coach, Katie Meier, for three games for organizing the Ruiz hosted dinner, while declining to impose punishment for Ruiz himself or the Cavinder twins. To the extent that the Cavinder case sounds in recruiting violations rather than an NIL violation, the Committee’s ruling represents a significant departure from abiding precedent for Level II recruiting violations, which would typically call for the booster’s disassociation from the University, and some punishment imposed upon the subject student-athlete(s). The resolution, however, most closely tracks the punishments previously forecasted by the NCAA for NIL related infractions, for which they stated athletes will not be punished.

The Committee, which, given the negotiated resolution, was forced to either accept or reject the terms negotiated, expressed discontent with both the relative lack of severity of the institutional penalties, and the absence of disassociation of Ruiz. For his part, Ruiz is determined to carry on with business as usual, telling ESPN: “It has little to no substance and no effect on me at all. It’s mostly focused on the coach, and that’s unfortunate. But it does not affect me or my business. If it did, I’d be suing the NCAA and it wouldn’t be a good day for them.”

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The Cavinder Twins Case: NCAA’s First NIL Ruling?

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