LAS VEGAS — More than three years before the towering, 6-foot-6 quarterback Nico Iamaleava strode through the South Seas Ballroom at Mandalay Bay for his debut at Big Ten Media Days, where the financial paper trail of his highly scrutinized football career was among the most enthralling storylines for reporters, the soft-spoken kid from Southern California became a poster child for the freshly introduced Name, Image and Likeness (NIL) era in collegiate athletics while he was still in high school.
It was March 11, 2022, when The Athletic published a story outlining the details of a mind-twistingly lucrative NIL agreement for an unnamed five-star prospect from the 2023 recruiting cycle. The deal would net the player $350,000 almost immediately, according to the article, and include “monthly payouts escalating to more than $2 million per year once he begins his college career, in exchange for making public appearances and taking part in social media promotions and other NIL activities,” all of which fell under the umbrella of the school’s collective or a third party. At the time, industry experts labeled it the richest contract of the NIL era, a transformative period that was ushered in less than one year prior.
For internet sleuths and reporters alike, connecting the dots between that contract and Iamaleava, the No. 3 overall prospect and No. 2 signal-caller in the class, didn’t take long. News of Iamaleava’s commitment to Tennessee, for whom he became the highest-rated quarterback recruit in school history, broke later that same month. Eventually, it was confirmed that the document reviewed by The Athletic had detailed an agreement between Iamaleava and Spyre Sports Group, the Volunteers’ collective. And there’s been a general understanding that money is among the prevailing themes in Iamaleava’s career ever since.
That’s why it was so jarring to hear Iamaleava’s apparent naïveté amid his 25-minute media session in Las Vegas, where reporters peppered him with questions about another rash of NIL-related headlines that helped explain why he was at this event in the first place, proudly sporting a light blue suit, white dress shirt unbuttoned at the neck and large diamond earrings as the starting quarterback for UCLA.
Three months had passed since the very public, very sudden and very messy divorce between Iamaleava and Tennessee rocked the college football universe in mid-April, all of it reportedly sparked by failed attempts to renegotiate the player’s compensation package ahead of the 2025 campaign. And yet here sat Iamaleava in late July, still a few months shy of his 21st birthday, looking to rebrand himself in front of a national audience as anything other than a money-hungry quarterback while likely knowing full well — at least on some level — that he’s never going to escape that label.
“My [decision] to go away Tennessee was across the time, you already know, that I believe the experiences got here out,” Iamaleava stated. “Simply false experiences that made me not really feel snug with the place I used to be in. However behind my head, I all the time needed to return again house and be nearer to my mother, be nearer to my dad and simply have my household, their assist, at our video games. In our Samoan tradition, we’re all the time collectively, and that was the principle factor for me, the driving issue for me to return again house.”
Although undoubtedly tinged with fact, Iamaleava’s feedback appeared geared toward distancing himself from all the pieces that occurred in April, when what seemed to be a comparatively profitable partnership between quarterback and soccer program disintegrated not lengthy after the Volunteers had reached the College Football Playoff for the primary time at school historical past. In main Tennessee to a 10-3 total report and 6-2 mark within the SEC, Iamaleava threw for two,616 yards with 19 touchdowns and solely 5 interceptions as a redshirt freshman. He grew to become this system’s first quarterback to win 10 video games in a season since Casey Clausen in 2003, engorging expectations for what he would possibly obtain throughout the rest of his collegiate profession.
Nico Iamaleava #8 of the Tennessee Volunteers appears to throw the ball throughout a first-round Faculty Soccer Playoff recreation between Tennessee and Ohio State. (Picture by Robin Alam/ISI Pictures/Getty Photos)
However starting in early April, because the Volunteers navigated spring apply, a collection of experiences from nationwide media shops detailed some apparent friction between Iamaleava’s camp and Tennessee regarding the player’s financial compensation. These representing Iamaleava had been reportedly in search of a renegotiated package deal that will pay him roughly $4 million for the upcoming season relatively than the $2.4 million he was anticipated to earn. The disagreement, which was additionally stated to have included potential issues in regards to the high quality of Tennessee’s offensive line, incited frustration within the locker room and amongst members of the college’s administration, finally coming to a head when Iamaleava skipped apply on April 11. The subsequent day, head coach Josh Heupel informed reporters that he was moving on from the star quarterback because “no one is bigger than” the program. Iamaleava entered the switch portal shortly thereafter and dedicated to UCLA the next week.
“Simply false stuff about whether or not it was a monetary factor or not,” Iamaleava stated. “My driving issue to return again house was my household. I hope each Tennessee fan understands that. It was actually one of many hardest choices that I ever needed to make. However, you already know, I needed to do what was finest for me and my household. Finally, I needed to return again house and be nearer to my household.”
It’s troublesome to reconcile the thought of somebody who has been so totally intertwined with the comparatively temporary historical past of NIL — from his record-setting settlement in highschool to his highly-paid place because the beginning quarterback at Tennessee — claiming to have separated himself from the monetary equipment that so clearly surrounds him, and lots of different elite gamers, within the sport’s trendy period.
Again and again, Iamaleava informed reporters in Las Vegas that “I don’t actually deal with NIL,” as a result of the one issues he worries about are soccer and teachers, along with his mother and father and enterprise representatives dealing with the remainder. He reiterated that social media has by no means been a big a part of his day by day life — “I’m a giant YouTube man,” he stated — which meant that tuning out the rampant dialogue surrounding his motives and status was pretty easy. He spent most of his time through the fallout with Tennessee enjoying video video games and solely realized in regards to the numerous media experiences when knowledgeable by his cousins, to whom he repeatedly stated, “I do not care.”
Nico Iamaleava is pictured on the sidelines through the UCLA Soccer Spring Showcase. (Picture by Ric Tapia/Getty Photos)
Iamaleava maintained that posture in Las Vegas by declining to debate the specifics of his new NIL settlement with UCLA, which will reportedly pay him just shy of $2 million this season. His new head coach, DeShaun Foster, vouched for that model of Iamaleava — relatively than the extra egocentric ilk portrayed on the web — when requested about his quarterback’s demeanor since becoming a member of this system after spring apply.
“I performed with [Hall-of-Fame defensive end] Julius Peppers,” Foster stated, “and so they’re very related, you already know? Bigger than most people however sort of don’t need that focus. I identical to that as a result of, you already know, he’s human and you’ll sort of inform he’s a group man and a household man. Lots of people sort of need that focus for themselves, and he’s not any individual that does that. It simply felt good to know that we obtained the best sort of quarterback.”
However what Iamaleava didn’t draw back from throughout his look at Huge Ten Media Days was laying out the blueprint he hopes to observe at UCLA, which is getting into Yr 2 underneath Foster after ending 5-7 total and 3-6 as a Huge Ten debutant final fall. If all goes effectively on a private stage for Iamaleava, whose dedication to the Bruins prompted presumptive beginning quarterback Joey Aguilar, a winter switch from Appalachian State, to re-enter the portal and take Iamaleava’s place at Tennessee, this can be his solely season with this system earlier than getting into the NFL Draft. And if all goes effectively as a gaggle for the Bruins, who’ve already landed verbal commitments from three blue-chip recruits and eight highschool prospects rated among the many prime 500 gamers total since signing Iamaleava, they’ll claw their approach towards convention respectability after ending twelfth in 2025.
There’s a sure symmetry to Iamaleava’s continued rebrand unfolding in Los Angeles, the leisure capital of the world, the place scores of eyeballs will monitor his each transfer given all the pieces he’s been by way of the previous couple of years. It’s one other juxtaposition for a participant working to go away that chapter of his life behind.
“I can solely converse for my recreation and the way I’m off the sector, how I’m as an individual,” Iamaleava stated. “I do know I’m an important particular person. I do know what I convey to the desk. My factor is to go on the market and carry out on the soccer area.”
Michael Cohen covers school soccer and school basketball for FOX Sports activities. Comply with him at @Michael_Cohen13.
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