College Football's New Era Begins with NIL Contract Drama at Tennessee

Nico Iamaleava's shocking exit from Tennessee over an NIL dispute shows just how much college football has changed.

Tennessee Volunteers quarterback Nico Iamaleava (8) walks off the field after the win against the Vanderbilt Commodores during the second half at FirstBank Stadium. | Steve Roberts-Imagn Images

Well, things got very interesting in Knoxville and it has to make people in Nashville crack a smile.

If you didn’t believe me this week when I said college sports is looking more and more like professional sports without the ability to buy and sell teams, I have another piece of evidence to support my theory.

Sources: Tennessee is moving on from starting quarterback Nico Iamaleava. Tennessee coach Josh Heupel informed the team of the decision at a team meeting this morning. Iamaleava missed meetings and practice on Friday, which was the driver of this decision. pic.twitter.com/BsdhJMDXiz

— Pete Thamel (@PeteThamel) April 12, 2025

College football has had its first hold-in over a NIL contract dispute. Tennessee (the school, not the state) probably didn’t volunteer to make this history, but it has, nevertheless. Redshirt freshman quarterback Nico Iamaleava has been cut by the Volunteers and will be available to any team when the spring transfer portal window opens Wednesday.

Iamaleava and the school were renegotiating his NIL contract and, apparently, Iamaleava wasn’t happy with the direction the talks were going. So, he skipped Friday’s practice and on the morning of Tennessee’s spring game, coach Josh Heupel informed the team (and everyone else) that Iamaleava would no longer be a part of the program.

Again, Vanderbilt fans have to be smiling just a little bit. Its biggest rival has showed one of last year’s best quarterbacks the door and only have two scholarship quarterbacks on the roster neither of whom have any playing experience. That’s not a good situation to be in.

The Commodores are set at quarterback with Diego Pavia, so they shouldn’t be expected to vie for Iamaleava’s services. But if anyone was in denial about the direction college sports is headed, this should be your much-needed wakeup call.

NFL fans will instantly recognize this type of situation. A player is unhappy with his contract, wants a new deal, sits out of practices (or just doesn’t show up) and either a deal is made or the player is cut. That’s exactly what just happened at Tennessee. The two sides couldn’t make a deal and the player was cut.

So, like it or not, college sports is now professional sports. And it’ll be hard to put this genie back in the bottle.