John Ruiz is a businessman who is known for donating a lot of money to the University of Miami and its athletes. The NCAA just put Miami on probation because the women’s basketball coach helped Ruiz meet 2 huge recruits before they actually committed to Miami.
That is a violation of the NCAA bylaws for two reasons:
Boosters are not allowed to meet prospective student athletes. NCAA D1 Bylaw 13.1.2.1.
A college cannot publicly talk to anybody about a recruit until that recruit signs a National letter of intent. NCAA D1 Bylaw 13.10.1.1
Ruiz is upset because he doesn’t think he’s a booster:
“The main gist of it is I’m not a booster. Therefore, the categorization of me as a booster is legally incorrect. There has already been an agreement in place. I think the university could petition them back to shorten the probation period.”
What we call a “booster” is called, in the NCAA’s Bylaws a “representative of the institution's athletics interests." NCAA D1 Bylaw 13.02.15.
A “representative of the institution's athletics interests" is an individual, independent agency, corporate entity (e.g., apparel or equipment manufacturer) or other organization who is known (or who should have been known) by a member of the institution's executive or athletics administration to:
(a) Have participated in or to be a member of an agency or organization promoting the institution's intercollegiate athletics program;
(b) Have made financial contributions to the athletics department or to an athletics booster organization of that institution;
(c) Be assisting or to have been requested (by the athletics department staff) to assist in the recruitment of prospective student athletes;
(d) Be assisting or to have assisted in providing benefits to enrolled student-athletes or their family members; or
(e) Have been involved otherwise in promoting the institution's athletics program.
Ruiz graduated from Miami in 1987. His two sons played baseball there. John personally offered to build the University of Miami a football stadium. His companies have paid student athletes over $10 million in NIL money.
We don’t know much about his actual contributions to the Miami athletics department and John is probably going to argue that his companies — not him, individually — are involved in NIL activity.
Stay tuned to see if he actually sues the NCAA.