I know this might be a hot take, but: NIL is ruining college football.
Obviously things are different in the NCAA these days, after in 2021 the Supreme Court cleared the way for college athletes to make money off of their name, image and likeness.
The result was an arms race, with schools rushing to build up NIL collectives to provide their athletes the opportunity to make money and hopefully entice the best players. While schools still can’t directly pay their players, there are “amateur” athletes making millions of dollars and getting fancy sports cars from donors and collectives in order for schools to recruit the best players.
With college football turning into a business now, we’ve already seen “contract disputes” arise over NIL, like last year when UNLV starting quarterback Matt Sluka announced on Twitter that he would be redshirting the rest of the season to preserve his final remaining year of eligibility, apparently due to a dispute with the university over his NIL deal. And with the transfer portal allowing athletes to transfer without penalty, the result is bidding wars between schools and players demanding insane NIL deals to uphold their commitments to their university.
And by “insane,” I mean University of Tennessee quarterback Nico Iamaleava reportedly demanding $4 million to play for the Volunteers.
It was reported yesterday by On3 Sports that the junior quarterback is reportedly seeking to re-negotiate his NIL deal ahead of the April 16 transfer portal opening, a claim that Iamaleava’s father quickly denied:
More games being played off the field than on the field. Bi7ch Nakos from @On3sports called and asked me directly, I told him I had no idea on what he's talking about. He said his "close source" that he trusts with his life from the University of Tennessee staff gave him this
— Coach_Nic (@Nic_Iamaleava) April 11, 2025
That’s that, right? Well no, because today, amid rumors of the demand from the QB, Iamaleava reportedly decided to skip spring practice, only throwing fuel on the rumors that he was unhappy with his contract:
Tennessee QB Nico Iamaleava, amid reports that he wanted to renegotiate his NIL deal, did not show at Friday morning’s practice, sources told ESPN, and it was a surprise to Tennessee staff members and players. Iamaleava’s reps denied Thursday there was any renegotiation talk.
— Chris Low (@ClowESPN) April 11, 2025
Of course it could be that Iamaleava wasn’t happy that members of the athletic department were reportedly leaking information about him to the media. Or it could be that he really is holding out for a better deal and thinking about testing the market if he doesn’t get what he wants.
But regardless, it seems that Tennessee fans are over Iamaleava and ready to move on from the starting QB and his antics:
nico, just leave dude. You aint worth 8 mil. You aint even worth a few hundred K with the performance you put on last year. if you aint all orange, you aint all in.
— Austin Parks (@austin_parks29) April 11, 2025
Okay. I'm eating crow. $4 million a year is ridiculous. @Nic_Iamaleava said that the @on3 article was a lie.
So which is it? Who is lying? Did Nico skip practice as a negotiating tool? If so, let him walk, use the $4 million in the portal, and let GMac and Merk compete for QB1 https://t.co/UAGSsIRP9a— IASINeyland (@sobebyf) April 11, 2025
You pay a dude 2mil to miss every deep ball of the season, and he demands more lol. Unbelievable.
— CodeyWanKenobi (@CodeyWanKenobi) April 11, 2025
Thinking Tennessee fans of all people would put up with something like this is one of the worst miscalculations I’ve ever seen lmfaooo
— ً (@ClasslessVol) April 11, 2025
https://t.co/rT2KCiXNYe pic.twitter.com/YRXqtMbJ3M
— Message Board Geniuses (@BoardGeniuses) April 11, 2025
https://t.co/Bl9TyDsCvj pic.twitter.com/liQzXTNsCb
— Message Board Geniuses (@BoardGeniuses) April 10, 2025
It’s really no surprise that Tennessee fans aren’t thrilled about ponying up more money for Iamaleava, who reportedly signed a deal with around $8 million when he got to Knoxville, meaning he was already making around $2-2.5 million per year.
The quarterback served as the backup to Joe Milton his freshman year, and led Tennessee to a College Football Playoff appearance last year, but his performance didn’t exactly set the world on fire: He threw for 2,600 yards, an average of 201 yards per game, and 19 touchdowns in 2024. And against Ohio State in the first round of the College Football Playoffs, Iamaleava managed to throw for only 104 yards as the offense struggled to move the ball, going 14-31 and only scoring 17 points in the loss.
Not exactly $4 million per year numbers…
For comparison, senior QB Carson Beck reportedly got $4 million from Miami after he transferred from the Georgia Bulldogs after the 2024 season, and Texas QB Arch Manning is currently estimated to have the highest NIL valuation at $6.5 million. And Michigan reportedly paid $10.5 million (over 4 years) for incoming freshman quarterback Bryce Underwood thanks to some help from Michigan alum and Barstool Sports founder Dave Portnoy.
It’ll be interesting to see how it plays out for Tennessee, but it’s just another sign that we’re in a new era of college football. It’s still weird to hear about players signing contracts, and now we may have our first “holdout” over a contract dispute.
Weird times…and hopefully the more of these situations we see, the greater the urgency to do something to fix the NIL mess.
