College Athletics is in a pivotal spot in this current moment in regards to NIL and the Transfer Portal, and many speculate on actions the NCAA should take. On Friday, Nico Iamaleava, freshman quarterback who played for the University of Tennessee this previous year, no-showed the final practice for the Voles spring camp. Many, including the University of Tennessee Brass, believe that this was a blatant holdout technique to renegotiate his contract. 

A holdout is when an athlete refuses to work or even show up to team activities to force the team into renegotiating their contract with the player. This is a common occurrence in professional sports. Players such as Ben Simmons, Los Angeles Clippers guard of the National Basketball Association, a notable examples of one of the most publicized contract holdouts. Simmons’ holdout ended in him being fined every day he didn’t show up and eventually led to him being traded. He did, however, get a settlement with his former team, the Philadelphia 76ers. 

According to SportsBusinessJournal.com, Iamaleava is currently making around $2.4 million for the next season, but his representatives are looking for a deal worth around $4 million. The Tennessee Football program has promptly shown Iamaleava the door, as his production last season was nowhere near enough to warrant this holdout. 

As the title suggests, this article will dive into the good, bad and ugly repercussions of this holdout and what it means for the future of collegiate athletics. 

The Good: 

Iamaleava is a young quarterback. At only 20 years old, he entered the collegiate scene as a five-star prospect with incredible upside. According to 247Sports, he is the number one quarterback in the Transfer Portal right now. Teams that need QBs and have available NIL funds will take a shot with Iamaleava, despite the baggage that comes with him. Teams like the University of Southern California and The University of California-Los Angeles (UCLA) have definite needs at the positions. Iamaleava is from Long Beach, California, so these schools are naturally in the hunt for Nico’s services. 

The University of Notre Dame also needs a quarterback, but I feel like their head coach, Marcus Freeman, won’t put up with Iamaleava, despite his talent. One under-the-radar team that needs a quarterback is the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, and if anybody could get a quarterback back on track, it’s coach Bill Belichick. 

This controversy won’t destroy his career because there is still great demand for his services, but Nico won’t leave this completely unscathed. 

The Bad: 

Nico is coming off the 2024 season, where as the Voles starting quarterback, he threw for 2,616 yards (57th), 19 touchdowns (42nd in NCAAF) and five interceptions. Additionally, he had a QBR of 70.5, which ranks only 35th in all of college football. Simply put, it was a disappointing season for the quarterback. 

This failed holdout will likely lose Iamaleava money in the short-term, as teams will leverage Tennessee, letting him walk as a way to cap contract talks. Iamaleava’s agent completely mangled this situation. Nico should have played out this upcoming year, and if he performed at a higher level, then he could take Tennessee to the negotiating table. Instead, he won’t see the $4 million that he was asking for, let alone the $2.4 million that he lost as a result of being released. 

The Ugly:

In the grand scheme of things, the Iamaleava holdout is an anomaly, it’s the first contract holdout in the history of college athletics. In college athletics, historically, the players have had little to no leverage in the power struggle with the programs. In college basketball, they have a bit more leverage because players can go to the professional leagues after one season if they are good enough, while in college football, they have to wait three years. In baseball, college is completely optional. 

NIL and the Transfer Portal changed all of that. Now, the players have more power and can leverage their situation to get more money. For example, Carson Beck, redshirt-senior quarterback at Miami, transferred to the Hurricanes from the University of Georgia. FrontOfficeSports states that his NIL deal for this year is worth upwards of $10 million. For someone who religiously watched college football last year, that deal is extremely pricey, as in my opinion, he played himself out of the first round of the 2025 NFL draft based on his performance at Georgia last season. I can only imagine the NIL deals that Arch Manning, freshman quarterback at the University of Texas, will get in the future. Manning is the son of Cooper Manning, who is the brother of Pro-Football Hall of Famer Peyton Manning. 

All of this is due to the NCAA’s actions in regulating NIL or the lack thereof. I am by no means an opponent to players getting compensated for their work, but college athletics is starting to become more and more like the Wild West. Players are all on one-year contracts and are more or less holding teams hostage, something that is becoming more and more concerning.