Nico Iamaleava Will Be Remembered as the Poster Child of the Era When College Football Lost Its Soul

Nico Iamaleava committed to play football at Tennessee in March of 2022. While much of the money flowing to college athletes throughout the first year of Name, Image and Likeness compensation being permitted had gone to people like Livvy Dunne and the Cavinder twins — athletes with large social followings using their platforms for ad deals with brands — a new sort of NIL deal was starting to pop up across the country through booster-funded "collectives." These groups had been active in the months prior, particularly with the first ever transfer portal window after the 2021 football season, but none of them had done anything like give a high school quarterback $8 million. That's when 17-year-old Nico became the embodiment of the NIL era.

Iamaleava's deal leaked and was talked about like it was Alex Rodriguez's record-breaking $252 million contract in 2000 — and compared to the numbers some guys are getting now, would have been an equally good bargain if Iamaleava was actually competent. Regardless of what happened in his career, he was going to be inextricably linked to the NIL era as one of its first stars.

Little did we know back then just how much he would come to be defined by the money.

Iamaleava collected a seven-figure check to sit behind Joe Milton in his true freshman season before taking over in 2024 as one of the most hyped recruits of the last few decades. He put up numbers that could inspire some optimism going forward in those who view most glasses as half-full, but didn't really compile a highlight tape worthy of $2 million. But Iamaleava was Tennessee's guy. The Vols made a significant commitment to him, built a College Football Playoff roster around him and were going to sink or swim in 2025 based off what he did in another season where he was going to make a couple million dollars.

Except he didn't want a couple million. In fact, he was of the opinion he should be making double that and tried to hold his team hostage at the end of spring practice to make sure he got it. Obviously, that didn't work and he's now at UCLA making less money than he was set to make at Tennessee this season with a reputation in shambles and a California state income tax rate of 13 percent.

But should anyone really be surprised by this outcome? Iamaleava went to Tennessee because he got a giant TV game show check with $8 million written on it. And once the market surpassed what he was getting, it was time to go back to the money printing machine and grab a couple extra million dollars because that's all Tennessee's football program was to him.

You will not find a bigger proponent of college athletes getting paid than me. I think it's literally and figuratively criminal that young people who created one of the most valuable entertainment products in America for decades weren't compensated for it while university presidents and television executives lined their pockets. With that said, however, what happened over the last week with Nico Iamaleava seems like inarguable evidence to me that college football has been damaged likely beyond repair.

He will certainly become an example that may deter some players from doing similar things in the future, but this will happen again. We will see players sit out of CFP games due to NIL disputes — some have reportedly already threatened to do so. And "disputes" is actually too generous because it's really just players demanding more money and wanting the contracts they signed cast aside because they feel like it. That's not even to mention the lunacy of being able to poach players in the middle of April, but that's a different discussion.

College football is awesome because there's a sense of community you simply can't create with any professional sport. The people sitting next to each other at a Minnesota Vikings game likely have in common only that they're within driving distance of Minneapolis and their similarities to the players on the field stop just past both being humans who are breathing. But any two fans at a Tennessee game probably both graduated from UT, stayed in the same dorms, ate at the same restaurants and went to parties at the same houses — and all the players on the sideline did those same things, too. For one reason or another, they chose to go to the same school you did.

Nico isn't the problem. He's a symptom. The NCAA, knowing this was coming, refused to adapt its system at all and allowed collegiate athletics to become the Wild West. And until we find a way to restore some sense of balance and common sense, there will be plenty of more Nicos and more fanbases that lose a little bit of their love for college football as they see their school held ransom for the services of a mediocre quarterback.

I'm sure I'm like the majority of college football fans in that there is virtually nothing that could make me stop watching what I consider to be the best game on Earth short of the Lord calling me home. But it feels different now. And I don't want my children to grow up in a world where college football is just the NFL with better stadiums and worse quarterback play.