“We’ve been trendsetters,” Ruiz said in a recent interview, adding: “Nobody does it like we do.”
“I think what the purpose is, is to make sure that we get a return on investment from a company’s perspective,” Ruiz added. “While at the same time the students got more notoriety, and N.I.L. value, because the higher the value that the player has, the better it is for us.”
It is still against N.C.A.A. rules for athletes to receive money from a school or a booster in exchange for participating in a sport. Miami knows this well, as the school faced sanctions in 2013 after Nevin Shapiro, a booster who was incarcerated for a $900 million Ponzi scheme, told the N.C.A.A. that he provided cash and other gifts to many Miami athletes.
The wave of state legislation in 2021 allowed athletes to profit through social media posts, autograph sales, appearances, sponsorships, endorsement deals, and private training classes or camps. Now, many schools have adjacent collectives that pool booster funds and donations devised to arrange deals and endorsements for athletes.
When the athletes sign such deals, they are responsible for a set amount of commercials, social media posts and other requirements. (Wong, Pack, and Miami guard Jordan Miller wore LifeWallet uniforms in a commercial before their conference tournament.) So the amount of money a player gets largely hinges on the extent of their social media following.
Often, the best players amass the biggest followings, which can make N.I.L. deals look like boosters are openly paying for the best athletes.
Ruiz said that because of Pack and deep runs in both the men’s and women’s tournaments by Miami’s teams, he got more eyes on LifeWallet, generating “tenfold” returns on his investment in the athletes.
There are others out there like Ruiz, but they haven’t been as outspoken, in part because the presence of boosters often evokes the uncomfortable prospect of corruption. Miami benefits from doing business this way, but the athletic department has been publicly wary of embracing Ruiz.