Ruiz potentially suing the NCAA….

[AtrainCane]

That’s the thing about the NCAA right there. The gator has a collective, it was involved in a very public NIL disaster with Rashada involving $13.5 million and the NCAA put us on probation for steaks at Ruiz’s house with his clients, the Cavinder twins. Smh.

And a few people are in here calling him names and telling him to stfu after the players he’s brought us and the extended battle he’s about to undertake against these ******** in the NCAA.

 

[Cryptical Envelopment]

Could this essentially turn into a ****ing match with the NCAA ducking out because it's not worth the effort?

NCAA: "Ruiz, you're a booster"
Ruiz: "Ok, give me everything you know about [insert all major players at xyz schools]"
NCAA: "Ok Mr Ruiz, good luck in your business endeavors"

Ding ding ding. Yep, the only way this gets to discovery is if taking this to trial is Ruiz' primary goal.

 

[No_Fly_Zone]

How is that a good idea? How do you demonstrate you have been financially damaged without opening up your books to support such an assertion? Or how do you demonstrate that now such and such recruit doesn’t want to talk to you because of the association without disclosing who you’re talking to in the first place?

I never discount the creativity of plaintiff lawyers lol but this truly appears ill-conceived.

"Open up your books". It's tax records, P/L sheets, income statements, and a well-credentialed forensic accounting expert. Provided under a strict confidentiality order. If the NCAA asks for the back-up documentation, you fight it out.

Happens all the time in business disputes where lost profits are an element of damages. Admittedly difficult, but not at all uncommon.

 

[bobbydigius]

There’s only one problem with that line of thinking. Even if he was totally quiet and moved just like those other schools guys. The NCAA would still try and nail us/figure out where this money was coming from. Remember when SEC schools were dropping bags for players down here like wild and the NCAA was furnishing a burner phone to a guy in prison who was trying to take us down. They actually listed a used washing machine in the dam report good times.

That’s the thing though, the NCAA is dead in the water because they are toothless at this point. They just tried nailing Miami and Ruiz and this was the best they could come up with. They want this fight because it gives them relevance in a time where they basically have little left.

 

[mikel9286]

This seems like a weird precedent. What’s to stop someone from blowing up Alabama by becoming a booster, paying a recruit, making it public, and then suing the NCAA when they drop sanctions to give them access to the “discovery”?

 

[Cryptical Envelopment]

"Open up your books". It's tax records, P/L sheets, income statements, and a well-credentialed forensic accounting expert. Provided under a strict confidentiality order. If the NCAA asks for the back-up documentation, you fight it out.

Happens all the time in business disputes where lost profits are an element of damages. Admittedly difficult, but not at all uncommon.

LIFW is already a publicly traded company, they already have to disclose an incredible amount of info. Can't say the same for the NCAA, who should be scared.

 

[SayWhat]

You and the few others in here calling Ruiz names and telling him to shut the **** up in the midst of this war with the ncaa, and those few upvoting you as well, don’t deserve to have the players like Mauigoa and Samson that he’s made possible for us on his dime.

Just to clarify, is it Ruiz and his Benjamin's or is it Super Mario da rekruiter?

In the NIL age, of course coaches and who they are matter. Prior to NIL the single most important aspect was winning and NFL draft picks. NIL though has surpassed that IMO, but if you're winning and producing draft picks, you don't have to pay out as much NIL. Your money is worth more.

As for Ruiz, I might like the guy in person, but his online presence sucks. Reeks of a Napoleon complex with new money. He's lost some big court battles and isn't someone who's untouchable.

He's somewhat of a necessary evil if we wish to compete in this day and age, but for the love of god, maybe ratchet it down a bit.

 

[L A M P]

He didn't invent anything. His wealth comes from buying prospective litigation claims against insurance companies (which of course are worthless unless you eventually actually litigate them, or sell them off to someone else).

I believe his company created the software which helped identify perspective cases. I saw a clip on the intranets once. It's all foreign to me. The way you word it, is it similar to short selling?

Found this:

What You Need to Know​

• Ruiz began his legal career in personal injury and class actions, quickly rising to take on major pharmaceutical companies.
• His latest venture is an insurance recovery firm that combines software engineers and lawyers to identify incorrect insurance payments and recover money from primary payers.
• Ruiz is taking his company public through a Special Purpose Acquisition Company that recently valued MSP Recovery at $33 billion.

 

[AlexCane]

"Open up your books". It's tax records, P/L sheets, income statements, and a well-credentialed forensic accounting expert. Provided under a strict confidentiality order. If the NCAA asks for the back-up documentation, you fight it out.

Happens all the time in business disputes where lost profits are an element of damages. Admittedly difficult, but not at all uncommon.

Sure it does. But why subject yourself to that to . . . prove a point? Principled litigation is a problem.

 

[Cryptical Envelopment]

Just to clarify, is it Ruiz and his Benjamin's or is it Super Mario da rekruiter?

In the NIL age, of course coaches and who they are matter. Prior to NIL the single most important aspect was winning and NFL draft picks. NIL though has surpassed that IMO, but if you're winning and producing draft picks, you don't have to pay out as much NIL. Your money is worth more.

As for Ruiz, I might like the guy in person, but his online presence sucks. Reeks of a Napoleon complex with new money. He's lost some big court battles and isn't someone who's untouchable.

Who said he was untouchable? He sure hasn't. That's a loaded statement you just made, btw with quite an implication.

He has stated over and over, he is doing this completely by the book (why wouldn't he? There is no need to do it any other way anymore, and he's an officer of the court who would be stupid to break laws unnecessarily). So in his mind, he's doing everything the right way, and helping a lot of young people and their families while also helping to grow his business. Why would you back down when you're right?

Why in gods green earth would he let the NCAA, an organization he probably loathes even more than we all do, bully, besmirch, defame, or limit what he can do legally with his business for a waking second? Why?

Some people on this board think we should all still be running scared from the NCAA. **** that. They've been defanged. John is standing up for himself and taking on a bully. Not sure how that is "Napoleonic" in any way. I'd say quite the opposite.

How tall are you, btw?

 

[Fluffhead]

LIFW is already a publicly traded company, they already have to disclose an incredible amount of info. Can't say the same for the NCAA, who should be scared.

The NCAA does too, mainly through its 990. Unfortunately, the only recourse there is the IRS revoking its tax exempt status as opposed to shareholders scouring LifeWallets financials and the stock price going up or down as a result. The NCAA naming a Republican who was governor of a blue state like Massachusetts as Emmert’s successor was no coincidence. Purely political move.

 

[Cryptical Envelopment]

The NCAA does too, mainly through its 990. Unfortunately, the only recourse there is the IRS revoking its tax exempt status as opposed to shareholders scouring LifeWallets financials and the stock price going up or down as a result. The NCAA naming a Republican who was governor of a blue state like Massachusetts as Emmert’s successor was no coincidence. Purely political move.

The NCAA is on fumes, they've been defanged by the SCOTUS and conferences. They are a listing ship everyone is watching from the shore. The CFP is now its own entity too. The super conferences might even branch off eventually and leave the NCAA. They can't afford any more public wounds right now. They could "win" this case and the discovery could do 10x the damage along the way regardless. We all KNOW they play favorites, go after certain schools and people vindictively, ignore evidence against certain programs. That's all in comms somewhere. Discovery is a *****.

 

[Empirical Cane]

For you lawyer types here..

If I understand Ruiz's strategy correctly, he is going to try to force NCAA (via courts) to:

1. Retract their statement he is a Miami "booster" under their definition...

OR

2. Force NCAA to classify him as a booster of every program whose athletes he has NIL relationships with...


Thoughts??

 

[CaneFanWNY]

4+ decades of ******* with Miami for the NCAA to protect its own vested interests and the status quo of its good ole boys club.


Foretold prophecy. I hope with every fiber in my being that Ruiz embarrasses them into complete dismantlement. NCAA deserves nothing more than being a footnote of corruption and how to not operate as a tax exempt organization.

 

[hoops156]

How is that a good idea? How do you demonstrate you have been financially damaged without opening up your books to support such an assertion? Or how do you demonstrate that now such and such recruit doesn’t want to talk to you because of the association without disclosing who you’re talking to in the first place?

I never discount the creativity of plaintiff lawyers lol but this truly appears ill-conceived.

Plaintiff lawyers LOL. ive seen some creative **** from them including attempting to settle cases that arent theres

 

[hoops156]

For you lawyer types here..

If I understand Ruiz's strategy correctly, he is going to try to force NCAA (via courts) to:

1. Retract their statement he is a Miami "booster" under their definition...

OR

2. Force NCAA to classify him as a booster of every program whose athletes he has NIL relationships with...


Thoughts??

he is a booster. there is a nice article about his 2 mill donation right on UMs sites.

 

[hoops156]

He didn't invent anything. His wealth comes from buying prospective litigation claims against insurance companies (which of course are worthless unless you eventually actually litigate them, or sell them off to someone else).

bingo. the entire industry (whether youre on defense or Plaintiff) is a scam lol. its not a shock that all the homeowners carriers are leaving the state. they didnt address the rules when they should have and let this **** spiral with multiples of useless law suits over nothing bc everyone was in on the racket (defense firms signing insurance companies then billing the **** out of them, roofing companies, adjusters, plaintiffs lawyers). the only ones that got screwed out of it were the homeowners who are now mostly forced to go to citizens which is the state run insurance company

 

[hoops156]

Ding ding ding. Yep, the only way this gets to discovery is if taking this to trial is Ruiz' primary goal.

thats not entirely true. written discovery will likely be issued with the complaint by Ruiz and the NCAA will likely file their response (whether it be a MTD and a motion to stay discovery or Answer along with written discovery requests with that answer).

 

[TheOriginalCane]

I read that he’s suing for being considered a booster.

The NCAA defines boosters as “any third-party entity that promotes an athletics program, assists with recruiting or assists with providing benefits to recruits, enrolled student-athletes or their family members.” This catch-all label could also include collectives, or groups typically founded by university alumni that pool and allocate financial resources for athletes by way of NIL contracts.

I’m assuming he’ll contend that he’s a business man who provides opportunities to further his business via marketing w/ student athletes, & this was a business arrangement, not a ploy to drive the twins to play at The University of Miami.

Unfortunately, the issue is two fold…while I applaud Mr. Ruiz for going up against the NCAA, there was this caveat that I found cringeworthy:

Some in the NIL space recently told On3 that the NCAA might actually welcome a NIL-related court case. “The best thing for the NCAA is a court case because once it is initiated by a potential booster we have the discovery process,” said Peter Schoenthal, CEO of Athliance. “Both parties are entitled to all of the discovery – aka, the evidence – involved in the case. If the right case is brought, there are certainly going to be implicating emails and text messages, which is going to allow the NCAA to say, ‘See, we told you so.’ ”

Couple of things. First, I don't think Mr. Ruiz can argue that he's "NOT a booster". He might argue that in this situation, he wasn't acting as a booster, and he's got a good point there. It's like when Dr. Pepper signed an NIL deal with the Clemson QB. I'm quite certain that numerous boosters work for Dr. Pepper, so at what point do you draw a line between attributing the actions of a corporation to the various "boosters" who work there. Or to use a different example, would this mean that Nike could never do an NIL deal with an athlete prior to enrolling at Oregon, because are keenly aware of Phil Knight's alma mater and past contributions.

As for the nonsense about "the NCAA might actually welcome an NIL-related court case", that was just a quote from someone thirsty to get his company in the news story. While I'm sure that there MIGHT be some future case that would allow the NCAA to pry (cough, cough, Gator Collective and Jaden Rashada), the LifeWallet case is not it. With the LifeWallet situation, everyone cooperated and willingly gave information to the NCAA. The ONLY REASON that Katie Meier was disciplined was because of phone records. So I'm not sure what "implicating e-mails and text messages" this guy is talking about over and above what was already given to the NCAA, I just know that this is NOT the "test case" that the NCAA wants to litigate.

 

[SFbayCane]

Isn’t the keyword *bought* the inventing and the patenting? Or am I mistaken?

He pulled a musk and bought a mostly done company and shined it and sold it on the market and made his money

You guys just described the origins of people like Bill Gates & Paul Allen (Microsoft), Steve Jobs & Steve Wozniak (Apple), Thomas Edison and many many others who've gone down in history as inventors of something they initially purchased from others. So lets no go around trying to diminish what John Ruiz has achieved. He was an accomplished lawyer prior to the development of Life Wallet.