On Saturday morning the news came down that Tennessee football would be moving on from quarterback Nico Iamaleava.
For the last couple of off-seasons, we’ve seen the marketplace get wildly out of whack as players went into essentially one-year contracts and held all the leverage. While the old system was far too favorable to the Universities and coaches, the current system is far too favorable to the players, and unfavorable to the coaches and universities. College sports continues to fail to find the happy medium.
However, that might have changed on Saturday morning when finally a blue-blood program said, “enough”.
Nico Iamaleava missed team practices and meetings as he sought a larger contract with the program, and the school decided to cut ties after those talks emerged publicly this week.
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An Out-of-Control Market
Is this the spark that college football desperately needed? I hope so.
Player values are getting wildly skewed and somebody needed to take a stand. Now, if you’re a college football program, what is Nico’s actual value? Where is his leverage? This is economics 101.
He had a team that was fresh off a College Football Playoff appearance, had great talent around him, and was positioned to have a big season that could have resulted in a first round NFL Draft selection in 2026, which would have banked him millions more than he would have made in college football anyway.
The lack of foresight is stunning. But no one in college football has had the stones, in a public way, to put their foot down and say “enough”. Well, at least until Tennessee.
NIL is Out of Hand
Reports had Nico making $2 million per season from Tennessee. He was reportedly asking for $4 million.
If he balled out with a fantastic 2025 season, he’d be off to the NFL and have a chance to land a contract that would pay him up to 10x what he was requesting for one season with Tennessee. Playing the long-game is an important part of life.
Nico, or more likely his family and advisors, appear to have let him down. But at a time when seemingly no one is willing to stand up to an out-of-control system, it was only a matter of time before it finally happened.
I hope it’s the start of a trend for coaches and programs to also say, “enough”.
We’re on an unsustainable path. Fans are being asked to give more than ever before, with absolutely zero loyalty on the other side of the deal. Let’s not forget, Nico was making $2 million when he redshirted as a freshman. Tennessee invested very generously in him, and when push back to shove, none of that loyalty was returned.
It’s always a delicate balancing act, but other programs should start learning from what Tennessee did on Saturday. No player can be bigger than the program. And if the NCAA or Congress ever want to get their act together and do something about the madness, that wouldn’t hurt either. But I won’t hold my breath.
