Nico Iamaleava will miss out on more than $1 million with his decision to leave Tennessee for UCLA. And when I say “his” decision, I really mean his dad, Nic Iamaleava.
It was a grossly mismanaged situation that led to one of the funniest (and also disheartening) videos of the entire college football season.
Before we go any further here, I want to be very clear that I do not have any additional behind-the-scenes details about the negotiation process between the Iamaleavas and the Volunteers. Lane Kiffin alluded to the idea that there might be more to the story. There is a lot of misinformation about potential suitors and/or the dollar amounts involved. The full timeline of this saga is not entirely clear.
With that being said, we know the baseline of what happened. Nico’s dad, Nic, shopped his son on the open market after Tennessee lost to Ohio State in the College Football Playoff. Maybe before.
The Iamaleava camp claims that his desire to leave stems from Nico’s handcuffed role in Josh Heupel’s offense. They also hoped for increased protection on the offensive line and better weapons.
There might be some truth to that claim but money also played a large role. Nico Iamaleava was getting paid north of $2 million on a four-year, $8 million deal with the Vols. Give or take. He (his father) wanted to double that amount.
In the end, Iamaleava landed at UCLA. The Iamaleava family wasted no time in moving out of East Tennessee. Local news captured a video of the patriarch packing a U-Haul truck on Tuesday evening or early Wednesday morning. It is a video that will go down in college football history.
Iamaleava will get paid much less than what he was making at Tennessee at UCLA. Not only is he taking a pretty sizable pay cut in terms of tangible number, the cost of living in Los Angeles compared to Knoxville is approximately 73% higher. Tennessee does not have income tax. California state income tax hovers around 12% for an individual who earns more than $720,000.
If we do some math using approximate numbers — Iamaleava made $2.4 million per year at Tennessee and did not have to pay taxes. He will get paid $1.5 million at UCLA, with a higher cost of living and 12% income tax. Iamaleava lost out on at least $1 million because his father encouraged him to transfer.
I place a large portion of the blame on Nico’s dad. However, Nico is 20 years old. He is an adult with the ability to make decisions for himself. At no point did he push back on his father’s behavior, if he even knew what was going on, that is.
This whole thing has been a mess. It will be very interesting to see how Nico Iamaleava fares at UCLA and how Tennessee fares without him. The grass is not always greener but maybe this time it will be?