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Paul Finebaum reacts to Nico Iamaleava saga as ‘inflection point’ for CFB history
By Paul Harvey
Published:
Paul Finebaum has weighed in on the Nico Iamaleava saga and the starting quarterback at Tennessee attempting to get a larger NIL package from the Vols.
After reports surfaced earlier this week, Josh Heupel and his staff made the call on Saturday to move on from Iamaleava. According to ESPN’s reporting, Iamaleava was already set to make north of $2 million this season, and Tennessee did not cave to his requests.
As for Tennessee moving on, Finebaum believes it was the right call for the Vols, pointing to how the program had regularly gone to bat for Iamaleava, including when the NCAA wanted to rule the QB ineligible for his recruitment.
“I think the fans that I’ve talked to yesterday afternoon agree with this. It is the right call, and it’s the right call because they’ve already been held hostage, to a degree, by Nico and his people,” described Finebaum on ESPN. “They went to bat for him about a year ago, they fought the NCAA who wanted to rule him ineligible because of the recruiting. And they stood by and kept his eligibility, and he helped reward them by helping Tennessee get to the Playoff last year. But the bigger story here is beyond Nico. This is an inflection point in the history of college football.”
Finebaum admitted this is the first such holdout in college football history. But, based on current rules in place, it is unlikely to be the last now that Pandora’s Box has been opened.
However, as it relates to Iamaleava, Finebaum does not see an elite talent looking for a massive payday. According to Finebaum, his SEC football sources did not see a player worth being paid as a top-tier option.
“What’s interesting is he’s not that great,” claimed Finebaum. “I talked to various sources around the SEC yesterday and said tell me where he ranks out of the 16 QBs in the SEC. They said somewhere between 6 and 8. Tennessee saw the same thing and that’s why he’s not on the Tennessee roster this morning.”
Paul Harvey lives in Atlanta and covers SEC football.
