Steve Sarkisian Reacts to Tennessee QB Nico Iamaleava Portal Madness

In a sport where NIL has quickly taken hold of nearly every roster, the college football world has finally witnessed a broken bargain.

The Tennessee Volunteers parted ways with starting freshman quarterback Nico Iamaleava after just one season. Iamaleava was reportedly supposed to make $2.4 million this year, but when his agent asked for closer to $4 million, Tennessee declined to do so. Saturday morning, after Iamaleava failed to show up for Friday morning practice, he announced that he would be entering the transfer portal.

When asked about the situation during Monday's media availability, Texas Longhorns head coach Steve Sarkisian said it further highlights the challenges that come with maintaining a beneficial environment for one's program.

"I think it's a difficult [decision] for Nico and his family," Sarkisian said. "It's a difficult one for Coach Heupel and Tennessee and what they're trying to do. You know, ultimately, we all only have so much money to operate with, and we're all trying to build a team. And that's one of the beautiful things about football, it's the ultimate team sport. It's no different than if you were in the NFL. Sometimes when your hand gets forced and you only have so much money that you can allocate, you have to do what's best for the team, and I think Tennessee has made that decision."

Iamaleava threw for 2,616 yards, 19 touchdowns and five interceptions across 13 games for the Volunteers and took them to the College Football Playoff, falling in the first round to the Ohio State Buckeyes.

Sarkisian said that with the way NIL and player performance valuation has become so mainstream, it was only a matter of time before a situation like this occurred, but the question remained who would ultimately bring it to the surface.

With the NCAA spring transfer portal window opening on Wednesday, Tennessee's decision could be a catalyst for every coach to have a similar conversation with their players. However, Sarkisian said he's not quite ready for it, especially when the team is five practices away from capping off a productive spring training.

"I eventually will have that meeting with our players. I don't think I'm at that space to have that meeting right now," Sarkisian said. "Then we've got another portal window that's coming in. Great idea by us. We've got another free agency window that's about to happen. So I don't think I'm quite in a position to do that yet, but there will come a time we have that meeting where our focus has got to be on the right things, if they want to play as good a football as they can play."

Iamaleava's jump into the transfer portal continues to ignite controversy and has only further proven that Texas has a true star in the making with starting quarterback Arch Manning, who is currently the only class of 2023 quarterback that has not hit the portal so far.