Nico Iamaleava Is No Longer Part Of Tennessee Football Program

KNOXVILLE, TN -  The college football world was shocked to hear that Tennessee quarterback Nico Iamaleava did not show up to practice on Friday morning, following news of contract negotiations between him and the school's collective. 

The situation in Knoxville only escalated as conversations surrounding the absence were discussed the entire afternoon, with many around the Tennessee program trying to contact Iamaleava, to no avail as of early Friday evening. 

Now, Iamaleava is no longer a part of the Tennessee football program.

Pete Thamel was first to report the news on Saturday morning. Sources close to the program have confirmed the quarterback's exit and that he's submitting his paperwork to enter the transfer portal for when it opens Wednesday. 

After reports of the ongoing negotiations made their rounds, Nico's father took to social media early Friday morning, taking aim at a story that was released about the contract talks. From that point, things took an unexpected turn, as the Vols quarterback did not show up to the practice facility on Friday, with staffers trying to get in touch with Iamaleava. 

It got to a point on Friday where the football program was worried about the safety of Iamaleava, as the quarterback would not return messages from teammates, along with school officials. 

At that moment, you knew that there was obviously something going on behind the scenes that had escalated in a short timeframe. Why this is interesting centers around the fact that Iamalavea had dinner with teammates on Thursday night at offensive coordinator Joey Halze's house. Then, hours later, he did not show up for the final practice before Tennessee's spring game slated for Saturday afternoon. 

In this era of college athletics, nothing should surprise folks any longer, but there were plenty of people inside the Tennessee facility that were caught off-guard by the entire ordeal. To be clear, you can characterize this as a ‘holdout’, which rarely plays out in the public eye. 

How Did Tennessee and Nico Iamaleava Reach This Point? It's Complex

Most of this started back during the winter transfer portal period, when there were plenty of rumors floating around that Nico Iamaleava was being shopped around to other potential programs, Miami being one of them. While he never entered the portal, or asked for paperwork, the people behind the scenes working for Nico made it clear that Tennessee needed to invest in ‘weapons’ for the quarterback. 

From that point on, Nico's representatives and Tennessee's collective did have conversations about a potential contract renegotiation, but not to the point where the pen was ready to be put to paper. While Iamaleava was still playing on the first contract that he signed out of high school, which was for a reported eight million dollars over a number of years, with Nico set to make around $2.4 million this year. 

But now, Tennessee has decided to move on.

All the drama that played out on social media did not affect the Tennessee athletic department from a public relations standpoint, while trying to figure out the best way to handle the situation and also fuming at the same time about being in this position. 

KNOXVILLE, TENNESSEE - NOVEMBER 23: Nico Iamaleava #8 of the Tennessee Volunteers embraces with his family after a victory over the UTEP Miners at Neyland Stadium on November 23, 2024 in Knoxville, Tennessee.  (Photo by Johnnie Izquierdo/Getty Images)

Now, this ordeal will be studied by some, and also discussed for the entire offseason, no matter how each side tries spinning it. This is clearly a no-win situation for either side, but my goodness, this could've been handled so much better than how it actually played out. 

If There Were Three Options To Fix The Nico Situation, Here They Were

Lost in all of this is how much could potentially happen again with other schools around the country. While there are contract negotiations happening on a daily basis across college campuses that involve athletes, most of them are kept inside the house until it's time for the world to know. 

Not this week. Tennessee found itself in a pickle, with three options in reality. Do you give in, pay Nico Iamaleava what he wanted, but then risk being held over a barrel by other players on the team moving forward? 

Or, was it the right move to just let him go play for another school, while collecting a bigger check for next season? 

The third option would've caused some backlash, but could be worked out for at least the 2025 season, which was Nico Iamaleava not accepting any pay raise, and continuing to play for the Vols. Sure, there would've been a lot of moves on the public relations front that would've been made, but it wasn't impossible to pull off, especially if Josh Heupel publicly backed him during the process. 

Those are questions that were discussed at length on Friday and Saturday morning, inside the Tennessee athletic department, according to multiple sources with knowledge of the situation. 

Now, you know how it ended, but there are going to be plenty more chapters written about this saga. One thing I can promise you is that this story is far from over.