Former Fresno State stars at center of NCAA’s first NIL-related infractions case

Former Fresno State women’s basketball stars Haley and Hanna Cavinder were among the first student-athletes to hit it big in the Name, Image and Likeness game and, coincidentally, are at the center of the first NCAA enforcement action tied to NIL-related recruiting rules violations.

The NCAA reached a negotiated resolution with Miami that resulted in a three-game suspension for coach Katie Meier, one-year probation for the Hurricanes program and a reduction in recruiting official visits and days.

After the Cavinder twins hit the transfer market, Meier was found to have initiated contact between the 5-foot-6 guards and a prominent Miami booster. According to NCAA rules, boosters are not authorized recruiters and cannot have in-person contact off campus with recruits. The Cavinders and their parents met with Miami alum John Ruiz at his home for dinner, which also was an impermissible recruiting benefit.

Ruiz has signed more than 100 student-athletes to NIL deals to do promotion with some worth in the hundreds of thousands of dollars, according to reports.

Neither Ruiz nor the Cavinder twins were sanctioned by the NCAA; Meier served a school-imposed three-game suspension.

The NCAA utilized a negotiated resolution process because the university NCAA enforcement staff and Meier all agreed on the violations and penalties, though the committee on infractions, which reviewed the case, had misgivings about the outcome in regard to Ruiz.

“Boosters are involved with prospects and student-athletes in ways the NCAA membership has never seen or encountered,” the panel said, in a release from the NCAA announcing the penalties. “In that way, addressing impermissible booster conduct is critical, and the disassociation penalty presents an effective penalty avail to the committee on infractions.”

The panel noted that because the sanctions were reached through a negotiated resolution, they do not set a precedent for future cases and that it will consider booster disassociation penalties in future NIL cases.

The Cavinder twins, who have a TikTok account with more than 4.3 million followers and personal Instagram accounts with more than 500,000 followers, have earned an estimated $1 million through NIL deals.

Haley Cavinder, a former Mountain West Conference player of the year, this season is leading Miami in scoring at 12.8 points per game. Hanna Cavinder is averaging 3.8 points playing 17.0 minutes per game. The Hurricanes are 17-11 and tied for sixth in the Atlantic Coast Conference.

They burst onto the NIL scene, minutes after student-athletes were allowed to profit from their name, image and likeness, monetizing social media accounts and receive payment for appearing in advertising campaigns, autograph signings and personal appearances at camps, car dealerships and any number of other ventures.

A deal with Boost Mobile was announced July 1, 2022 when the NCAA adopted those rules changes and their earnings potential has skyrocketed since then.

Their TikTok account had 3.3 million followers at the time and their Instagram accounts had around 250,000.

A valuation prepared by the marketing platform Opendorse months before NIL legislation went into effect estimated their shared TikTok account alone was worth $520,000.