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Paul Finebaum has been following the Nico Iamaleava story as closely as anyone in college football. On Saturday, Tennessee coach Josh Heupel decided to move on from Iamaleava as he reportedly tried to get more money.
Iamaleava was set to make $2 million next season, per reports, but was looking to make potentially double that next year. While the Volunteers have decided to move on and prepare for their season without Iamaleava, that leaves the quarterback in an interesting spot.
Iamaleava is unable to transfer to an SEC school because of the rules in the SEC that state you can’t transfer within the conference during the spring window and be immediately eligible in the fall. He did grow up in California, and Finebaum thinks that there are teams on the West Coast who would be interested in him.
“Well, he grew up in California, so you have to look to that direction,” Finebaum said. “One interesting part of this is he can’t go anywhere within the SEC. One new clause in the spring portal, you can’t go within the SEC (and be eligible that fall). You can do that after the season. I would have to guess the West Coast. Obviously, there’s plenty of places out there, Oregon, USC, natural places.”
The fact that this is so late in the offseason is something that could hurt Iamaleava, as well as the way he has handled the situation. The NIL is in a wild place now, as players are able to make demands similar to NFL players.
While Iamaleava is too talented a player to not have any interest, Finebaum does wonder if teams are going to be hesitant to take a look at him.
“I wonder how excited are schools going to be to deal with his representatives,” Finebaum said. “This is a very nasty situation that has left a stench across college football, so I would say buyer beware.”
This could be 1 of those cases that potentially changes how things are done in the sport. We have seen many crazy things during the portal, but not a quarterback of this talent leave this late in the offseason because of an NIL dispute. There are many coaches out there who are hoping for changes in the portal, and this could be the type of event that pushes towards those changes.
