NIL Era Could Be Forever Changed by Disastrous Nico Iamaleava Situation

Nico Iamaleava's decision to leave the Tennessee Volunteers could permanently alter the way players move.

Tennessee quarterback Nico Iamaleava (8) tries to keep warm before the start of the NCAA college football playoff game against Ohio State on Saturday, Dec. 21, 2024, in Columbus, Ohio. / Saul Young/News Sentinel / USA TODAY NETWORK via Imagn Images

The last half decade or so has seen more radical changes in collegiate athletics than the five decades that proceeded it.

From Name, Image, and Likeness initially being framed just as a way for players to finally be able to capitalize on their brands compared to what it has become in this current era, it has been quite the roller coaster ride of twists and turns.

Before the past couple of weeks, however, college sports has not seen a situation quite like what happened between Nico Iamaleava, the Tennessee Volunteers and the UCLA Bruins.

Initial reports shocked the college football world when it was rumored that Iamaleava was trying to negotiate for more money than he's already scheduled to get from the historic deal he initially signed with Tennessee.

Despite what was a no better than average -- and based on expectations that word may be generous -- first season as the starting quarterback for the Volunteers, Iamaleava believed his worth to be more than the roughly $2.5 million he was set to receive.

After his power play against Tennessee and search for $4 million failed following a miscalculated skipped practice and subsequent effective dismissal from the team, Iamaleava found himself in the portal.

Iamaleava then committed to UCLA, and reports indicate he will be playing for the Bruins for far less than he would have received if had he just stayed put in Knoxville.

Despite the issues this current era of college sports has, it's fair to say most people want to see players get paid what they are worth after over a century of that not being the case.

In the last several years, however, and especially over the last year, that worth has ballooned.

It's not so much the numbers people have an issue with, but rather the way players have gone about collecting money and how programs have gone about giving it to them.

NIL was never intended to be a pay-for-play recruiting tool, but at this point, there's not a serious person who would say that's not what it has become.

Things are completely off the rails, but the Iamaleava situation is really the first public example of a team pushing back against the demands of a player who didn't meet the standard of the initial deal, let alone the new demand.

More significantly, it's the first example that's been seen of a player losing millions of dollars after a collective college football public simply refused to bend to demands.

Moving forward, Iamaleava's blunder is going to be framed by coaches, fans and even parents that the grass is not always greener on the other side for athletes.

Sometimes there is real value in staying put.

Whether or not this actually causes less transfers or holdouts remains to be seen, but it certainly has increased the public urgency to get some sort of legislation in place to prevent future situations like this from happening.

It's not out of the realm of possibility -- and may even be likely -- that a decade down the line, the Iamaleava disaster is looked upon as the moment that ushered in a whole new era of change.

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