Nico Iamaleava’s University of Tennessee football career began with him making national headlines for name, image and likeness (NIL) money. It’s ending that way, as well.
In a surprising turn of events, Iamaleava has decided to transfer from UT after the Vols failed to meet the quarterback’s demands for an increase in NIL money. Iamaleava, who was reportedly making $2.4 million from his NIL deal, was seeking to be paid $4 million this season.
The standoff became public April 10 through a report from On3. Iamaleava didn’t attend UT’s practice Friday and informed the UT coaches of his plans to leave the program Friday night, only a few hours before the Orange & White spring game Saturday afternoon.
“It’s unfortunate. I want to thank Nico for everything he did here,” UT head coach Josh Heupel said after the spring game. “Obviously we’re moving forward as a program. There’s no one bigger than the Power T, and that includes me.”
Iamaleava is the first high-profile college athlete to have an NIL contract demand go public in this fashion. His decision not to attend last Friday’s practice was compared to an NFL player holding out of training camp for a new deal. UT didn’t budge from its stance and decided Iamaleava wasn’t worth the investment.
Iamaleava just completed his redshirt season and has three seasons of eligibility remaining. He led the Vols to the College Football Playoff and a 10-3 season, throwing 2,616 yards with 19 touchdowns and five interceptions.
Given the SEC spring transfer rules, Iamaleava can’t transfer to any programs within the conference if he wants to be eligible for the 2025 season, and UT can’t obtain any QB transfers from another SEC program who could start in 2025.
Tennessee has two scholarship quarterbacks on the roster in redshirt freshman Jake Merklinger and true freshman George MacIntyre. Heupel expects the Vols to acquire another quarterback in the portal before practices begin for the 2025 season.
“If it’s going to happen, rip the Band-Aid, too,” Heupel said of moving on from Iamaleava. “At the end of the day, we got a lot of great work for the two guys that are here. We’ve got a chance to move forward as a program. It’s unfortunate in the landscape of college football that it happens at this point.”
Evolving college landscape
Iamaleava was the early face of NIL when he signed with UT’s collective for a reported $8 million deal before even taking a snap for the Vols. The deal prompted an NCAA investigation and led to a lawsuit by the attorneys general of Tennessee and Virginia over the NCAA’s rules prohibiting NIL compensation for recruits, which the NCAA settled by lifting the restrictions.
Iamaleava’s decision to demand more money from UT elicited polarizing reactions, with some advocating for his right to try to restructure his deal and others commending UT for not backing down while criticizing Iamaleava for his greed and lack of leadership.
Nearly all agree the college athletic system needs to be changed, either through collective bargaining and making athletes employees or through Congress granting the NCAA its wish of an antitrust exemption.
“What could prevent players like Nico from holding out? Recognizing them as employees and negotiating a collective bargaining agreement. The very thing schools have resisted,” sports lawyer Darren Heitner wrote on X (formerly Twitter). “A CBA may include heavy fines for players who fail to report, restrict their ability to transfer, void contract guarantees, clawback moneys already paid, etc. This would all be negotiable and enforceable, immune from antitrust scrutiny.”
ESPN recruiting and college football analyst Tom Luginbill hailed UT’s decision to avoid getting into another bidding war with Iamaleava and his family.
“The decision Tennessee made today may be the spark that lights the fuse to course correcting a wildly out of control market, where player values are skewed,” Luginbill wrote on X. “Somebody needed to take a stand. The question you must ask yourself now is what is Nico’s actual value? Where’s his leverage? Will he end up with a program that is a conference title contender with great personnel around him? Because he just gave that up.”
Focused on the future
Following the spring game, UT senior tight end Miles Kitselman hinted that Iamaleavea’s actions didn’t go over well in the locker room.
“I’ve been on some talented teams that haven’t done too well because there were a bunch of individuals on those teams,” Kitselman says. “I’m not just saying this to be saying it, but man, this team is different. Like I said before, there’s no one else I’d rather go to war with and letting these guys know that we’re good with whoever we’ve got back there at quarterback. We’ve got some dogs here, these two guys [Merklinger and MacIntyre]. We’ve got some guys who want to be here.”
Only time will tell how the repercussions of the standoff impact Iamaleava and UT. But it’s highly likely that similar situations will arise at major college football and basketball programs unless something is done to bring more uniformity to financial deals.
Heupel hailed the tradition of UT football and the past coaches and players who helped set the foundation for success. Despite the awkward timing of the split with Iamaleava, Heupel seemed content with UT’s decision and confident about the team’s future.
“This program’s ready to go win next fall,” Heupel says. “As a program, since we’ve been here, we’ve won with a lot of different QBs and done it historically in my career with a lot of different QBs.
“Some of those guys have been older, some of them have been younger. But we’ll have a quarterback that’s ready to go win and help us compete for a championship.”