Nico Iamaleava and his NIL contract negotiations with Tennessee is the wildest story of the new college football calendar year thus far. The former five-star quarterback wants to get paid even more money.
However, it seems like the Volunteers are refusing to budge.
(UPDATE: the Volunteers did indeed refuse to budge! Iamaleava is off the team!)
Iamaleava, a rising junior, threw 19 touchdowns during the 2024-25 season and led Tennessee to the College Football Playoff. 11 of those touchdowns came against Chattanooga, UTEP and Vanderbilt. Four of his nine passing touchdowns during SEC play were in that regular season finale against the Dores. He completed only 14 of 31 pass attempts for 104 yards without a touchdown against Ohio State in the postseason.
Even though last year was fairly underwhelming when you really sit down and look at the numbers, Iamaleava is essentially demanding a new contract even though he received what was considered the largest NIL deal in college football history by signing with the program. The market has since adjusted and numbers are inflated. The 6-foot-6 signal-caller is trying to cash in on the spending spree.
These “negotiations” have been ongoing since the loss in Columbus. They reached a head on Thursday when they were made public.
Iamaleava’s father publicly trashed the initial report about negotiations and tried to downplay the drama, which only made it worse when his son did not show up to spring practice on Friday as a holdout. It was a shocking move to everybody involved.
To go even one step further, Nico Iamaleava made a very telling change to his Instagram bio. It used to say “Quarterback at The University of Tennessee.” Not anymore!
Perhaps Spyre Sports Group, the primary NIL arm in Knoxville, will meet the quarterback’s demands and pay him what he wants. But that sets a scary precedent. If Iamaleava can skip practice to get paid more money, why would other players not follow suit?
I expect that Iamaleava is going to enter the transfer portal when the spring window opens on April 16 at this point. I don’t know how this relationship is reparable at this point. We’ll see.
To add another wrinkle to the mix, SEC players are not allowed to transfer to another SEC program in the spring. He would have to transfer to a different conference. He would have no other option but to leave for the ACC, Big Ten or Big 12. There must already be a team out there that is ready to pay up.
Tennessee will play its spring game on Saturday. If its starting quarterback decides not to show up, that will presumably indicate his imminent departure— if the change on Instagram does not already. Stay tuned.