Lucas Panzica recaps the 24-hour saga of Nico Iamaleava's NIL predicament with the Tennessee Volunteers.
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00:00Okay, it has been a wild 24 hours as Nico Iamaliava and his ongoing situation with Tennessee football continue to dominate headlines.
00:07How did we get to this point and where do we go from here? We're going to break it all down.
00:14Hey, Lucas Panzeca here from 104.5 The Zone and A to Z Sports.
00:18So to recap, Thursday afternoon, Pete Nakos of On3 Sports dropped a report that Nico Iamaliava is in contract negotiations with Tennessee football ahead of the upcoming season.
00:28Nakos reported that Nico's status for the transfer portal after spring practice was uncertain and that he wanted more money than the $2.2 to $2.5 million that he is set to make annually on this current deal.
00:41Remember, Nico was one of the first sizable deals given to a student athlete in this new NIL era.
00:47It's also worth noting that Austin Price of Alquist reported that Nico in Tennessee had been in contract negotiations since December.
00:55Now, before we go further, it's important to note that is completely normal.
01:00Players in this era have two windows to exercise leverage, the portal after the regular season in the winter and the spring portal after spring practice.
01:08The only key difference being if you enter the spring portal, you cannot go to another school within your conference and be eligible to play that next season.
01:16So it's perfectly normal for a player like Nico to revisit contract negotiations as the market for a starting quarterback has changed.
01:25When you look at what the likes of Carson Beck is making at Miami, almost $4 million.
01:30So with that in mind, we understand that this isn't a unique situation.
01:34It's just a situation that fell under the limelight.
01:37But things really took a turn on Friday morning when we learned first from Austin Price of Alquist and then confirmed by Pete Thamel and Chris Lowe of ESPN that Nico Iamaliava was not present at practice on Friday.
01:48The final practice of spring ball for Tennessee with the orange and white game happening this Saturday at Neyland Stadium.
01:54Now, Chris Lowe continued that report saying that players and coaches alike were both surprised and frustrated at Nico's absence on Friday and that Nico is asking for in the range of $4 million for the upcoming season.
02:10So it appears that we are at a standoff right now between Nico Iamaliava and Tennessee football.
02:15You may be looking at that and saying Nico did not meet or surpass expectations last year.
02:21He did not play to the level of a quarterback that should be making $4 million in 2025.
02:26But unfortunately, it's not about performance.
02:29It's about the market.
02:30And right now, that is the market for a starting quarterback, especially one with the talent profile and ceiling of Nico Iamaliava.
02:38So where does Tennessee go from here?
02:40In my mind, there are two very clear options here, and neither one of them are particularly advantageous for Tennessee football.
02:48Option number one, you pay Nico what he wants, or at least close.
02:51To it, with a negotiation coming to a conclusion.
02:54If you do that, you keep Nico on your team, there certainly will be some toxicity from the fan base and potentially from players.
03:02You wonder at this point if any bridges in the locker room have been burned between Nico and current Tennessee players.
03:08There's really no way of knowing that at the moment.
03:11But again, Chris Lowe did report frustration from players that Nico no-showed at Friday's practice, and that all stands to reason.
03:19So you could pay Nico what he wants.
03:22You could have that bubbling in the locker room and within the fan base and risk a long line of players seeing Nico get that money and lining up with their handout, wanting more for their respective position, putting you in more and more tough situations throughout the spring portal.
03:37So, option B, you don't pay Nico Iamaliava.
03:41You don't blink.
03:42You look at him and say, no, you are making what we agreed you would make, and you call his bluff.
03:47Well, if that happens, I suppose Nico could just continue to play for Tennessee in 2025, or he could hit the transfer portal.
03:54And if Nico Iamaliava hits the transfer portal looking for greener pastures, which, by the way, I do think there is a market for Nico to make that kind of money, whether it's on the West Coast or elsewhere, you could risk a mass exodus of current Tennessee players following him into the portal.
04:10Remember, in the winter portal, there was a big scare that five-star wide receiver Mike Matthews would leave Tennessee.
04:16They were able to convince him to stay.
04:18What happens if his five-star teammate quarterback, Nico Iamaliava, hits the portal?
04:23Do you keep the likes of Mike Matthews and Boo Carter that would remain to be seen, but you risk a mass exodus and suddenly finding yourself with a ton of roster needs, and including at the quarterback position for the 2025 season?
04:37This is not an ideal spot to be in.
04:39It's yet another example of this broken system of college football with absolutely no guardrails, one where players have absolutely all the leverage, and it puts programs in a very difficult spot.
04:50We might be on the cusp of revenue sharing in college football.
04:54Judge Claudia Wilkin in California could, in the coming weeks, approve the house settlement where the NCAA would pay out nearly $3 billion in damages to current and former student-athletes and institute revenue sharing and start to police these NIL deals,
05:08which would mean that deals coming from collectives would have to be of fair market value with players.
05:15There would be more guardrails set up at that point, but that's not the case right now.
05:19It's still the wild, wild west.
05:21Nico and his side are trying to take full advantage, and Tennessee is trying to figure out how to play this right.
05:25I worry that this is past the point of no return for Nico and Tennessee football.
05:31Where we go from here next is going to be very interesting, but it feels like this is going to be a really tough situation to repair if Nico is going to continue to play for the Vols.