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NIL

How UCLA landed Nico Iamaleava — and is banking its rebrand on college football's lightning rod

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How UCLA landed Nico Iamaleava — and is banking its rebrand on college football's lightning rod

On a typical sunny morning in late April, the UCLA Bruins began their last week of spring practice. Almost every other football program in the country had already wrapped up spring ball. But the Bruins, a team trying to replace 42 seniors after a 5-7 season, were still at it.

Quarterbacks who had never thrown a pass in college took reps in a new system. Others were rehabbing injuries on the sidelines. Calling the vibe on the field “low-wattage” felt, that morning, like an oversell.

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Khary Darlington, the Bruins’ general manager, paced around the field, talking with folks observing practice. Second-year head coach DeShaun Foster brought him on board this year, one of a dozen new staffers to the program.

At 9:20 a.m., Darlington broke away from those he was chatting up on the sidelines, a grin on his face. He knew a very significant moment for UCLA football was about to happen.

“Excuse me,” Darlington said. “The Eagle has landed.”

And with that, the GM hustled toward the door to the Bruins’ facility to greet some important guests: Nico Iamaleava — UCLA’s biggest get in years — had made his first appearance in Westwood.

The energy at practice immediately changed. The players felt it. Coaches felt it.

Practice did continue, but a trio of defensive backs wandered from the sideline of the drill to see the 6-foot-6 quarterback in the gray jacket and white sweatpants. “Bro, I was just talking about you!” one of them excitedly told Iamaleava.

“You saw a reaction from everybody,” Darlington said. “It was almost like everybody’s back straightened up: ‘Ohhh, shoot, Nico’s here!’ Being a local guy, there are so many people on the team already that he knew, there was this excitement: ‘Wow, we have a real guy on campus that can be a real big difference-maker for us.’”

Darlington, a longtime NFL scout who played a key role in the Carolina Panthers’ evaluation of Cam Newton, has learned quickly that his job is much different from his NFL counterparts.

In the NFL, the role of evaluating talent and a player’s worth is primarily focused on what he brings to the team on the field and as a leader. In college, Darlington said, it’s those things, plus “the currency that it buys you with reputation and the recruiting value that he may have,” and the momentum a player can spark.

And that’s exactly what UCLA is hoping Iamaleava will bring to a rebranding Bruins program.

For Iamaleava, UCLA feels like an ideal fit. That all starts with being close to his family again, he told The Athletic, but also the connection he felt with Foster and the staff. “I really believe in what Coach Fos has going,” he said. “I think he’s building something special here, and I wanted to be a part of it.”

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Iamaleava, a Long Beach, Calif., native who grew up 30 miles from UCLA, committed to Tennessee in March 2022 after signing a name, image and likeness deal that paid him more than $8 million over four years. As a sophomore in 2024 — his first season as the Volunteers’  starter — he helped Tennessee to a 10-3 record and a College Football Playoff appearance. He threw for 2,616 yards and 19 touchdowns with five interceptions, plus three running touchdowns.

But Tennessee’s offense wasn’t as explosive as it had been in previous seasons, ranking No. 13 in the SEC in pass plays of 30 yards or longer. The Vols were led by a top-five defense that held its first nine opponents to 19 points or less. Coming off its first Playoff appearance in school history, Tennessee needed to replace the nucleus of last year’s offensive line, as well as leading rusher Dylan Sampson and its top three receivers.

Iamaleava seemed like its one sure thing.

But on April 10, two days before Tennessee’s spring game, On3 reported that Iamaleava and the program were working toward a new contract. The story made public some drama that had been brewing behind the scenes with the 20-year-old QB in Knoxville; there had been chatter for several weeks that Iamaleava might look to move on, sources had told The Athletic.

Iamaleava didn’t attend practice the next day, and the day after that, Vols head coach Josh Heupel announced, on the morning of the spring game, that Tennessee was “moving on” from Iamaleava.

The college personnel field has grown exponentially over the past five years, and with that, so has the rumor mill. Most know when a player is available before he is formally in the transfer portal — because if they don’t, staffs know they’ll probably miss out.

The Bruins staff already knew the Iamaleava family well. Nico’s younger brother, Madden Iamaleava, a four-star quarterback in the 2025 recruiting class, had been committed to UCLA for eight months as a high schooler before signing with Arkansas. Foster, a Southern California native and former UCLA star, also knew people close to the family. Getting good intel on the situation wasn’t hard.

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“The football community is small,” Darlington said. “You just start to ask questions, is this thing real or not real? But then, word just starts to get around. It’s nailbiting until you know you’re allowed to officially talk.”

And the Bruins wanted to talk. They desperately needed a quarterback coming out of 2024, a year when they ranked No. 126 in scoring and No. 95 in yards per play. UCLA scored more than 20 points in only two games. UCLA had brought in Appalachian State transfer QB Joey Aguilar last winter in hopes he could spark the offense, but halfway through spring, Foster wasn’t sold on his quarterback’s connection to the receivers and his film study habits. (He would transfer to Tennessee after Iamaleava joined the Bruins.)

So Darlington took a phone call from a close friend of the Iamaleava family, who said if UCLA was interested in having a conversation, he could help facilitate it.

“That’s what kinda gave us the green light to move forward,” Darlington said. “It was right around that time when Nico didn’t attend practice. Everything ramped up there. He said, once this thing pops off, then I can probably introduce you to the people that you need to talk to.”

“I already know a lot of guys on the (Bruins) team, guys I’ve played with and against back in high school and youth days,” said Iamaleava. “Re-connecting with them has been a fun thing.”

Darlington and UCLA’s assistant GM, Steven Price, another longtime former NFL personnel man, came up with 11 different scenarios of how they could make things work to get Iamaleava.

“Some were a little more uncomfortable than others,” Darlington said. “It was, how do we absorb this without compromising the rest of our roster and our team?”

The other tricky part with portal recruits is knowing who else is involved and how aggressive they are going to be. UCLA had heard that Oregon, for example, was out on the chase for Iamaleava. Same with Ohio State and USC, although the Bruins weren’t convinced of that. They weren’t sure about Notre Dame, either.

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“There’s no league office (like in the NFL),” Price said. “There’s no one to ask, how legitimate is this? I think having it both ways is the reason behind the 11 scenarios. You’re playing against the (financially ambitious) Texas Tech mentality, and you’re playing against the wanna-be conservative in how you compensate the players mentality.”


Iamaleava and Tennessee’s split was a major moment in college football’s new era. (Steve Roberts / Imagn Images)

In the meantime, reports out of Knoxville were that Iamaleava’s representatives, including his father, Nic (The Athletic had been told in April that Nico does not have an agent), had reached out to Tennessee’s NIL collective in late December to up the quarterback’s pay for 2025 around $4 million, which would be more than the $2.2 million that he was expected to receive. The Athletic reported then that the quarterback was not looking for $4 million.

The fact that UCLA was in the middle of the story seemed like a head-scratcher. It was no secret the Bruins had been slow in the NIL space. Sources familiar with the Bruins’ NIL situation told The Athletic that UCLA’s NIL budget last year was $8 million-$10 million, likely putting the Bruins in the bottom half of Power 4 programs. Foster, though, has been able to generate money, pointing to last season’s three-game winning streak as a turning point.

UCLA bringing in Iamaleava, and the situation with transfer wideout Kaedin Robinson — who made public record his $500,000 NIL deal in an effort to successfully sue the NCAA for eligibility this season — signals that the Bruins, who went 3-6 in league play in their first year in the Big Ten, are now in the game.

“It is what it is,” Foster said. “It’s the game. It’s not just us. The conference that we’re in has won the last two national championships. So for us to compete, we gotta compete.”

And they were going to compete for Iamaleava.

UCLA sought to understand what happened with Iamaleava and Tennessee. The holdout before Tennessee’s spring game was a major moment in a changing sport.

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“Today’s landscape of college football is different than what it has been. And, you know, it’s unfortunate, just the situation and where we’re at with Nico,” Heupel said at the time. “I want to thank him for everything that he’s done since he’s gotten here. I said to the guys today, there’s no one that’s bigger than the Power T. And that includes me.”

But, according to Darlington, “Once you peel back the layers, you realize it wasn’t just about (money) at all. This was a big family that did not want to travel all over the country to see their kids play. I think home and family were at the heart of everything.”

“He’s a West Coast guy,” Foster said of Iamaleava. “I just feel like he catches a bad rap just because there was a dollar figure attached to him, and there really wasn’t. If there was, I don’t think we would’ve been the school that they were looking at. Other schools could’ve given him more, for sure.”

Still, UCLA was sensitive to the issue of money. “Money becomes so divisive in the locker room. We did not want that,” said Darlington, adding that the financial details of the Iamaleava situation are “under lock and key.” Media reports that The Athletic believes are credible have pegged Iamaleava’s deal with UCLA at a bit under $2 million.

So on the morning of April 16, when the transfer portal officially opened again, Iamaleava entered his name with a “do not contact” label. By early afternoon, The Athletic reported that he was expected to transfer to UCLA. On April 20, Iamaleava announced that transfer publicly.

Iamaleava said it wasn’t hard to block out the commentary during that time.

“I got my family and the people I love with me,” he said. “That’s all I really worry about. All I can do is go on the field and perform. I’ve never really been that much of a social media guy anyway. I’m not on there as much. Normally, I’m on YouTube or watching movies. I wasn’t really worried.”

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Initially, the plan was for his announcement to take place on UCLA’s campus two days earlier at Friday Night Lights, a glitzy open practice the Bruins were staging to attract recruits and alumni. But Foster reconsidered because he thought it might take away from the players already on the roster.

And so Iamaleava made his debut that spring practice morning, flipping the energy of the practice on its head.

Iamaleava’s arrival sparked a flurry of commitments over the next two months. The Bruins added 14 transfers, including Cal’s Jaivian Thomas, one of the top-ranked running backs in the portal. They got commitments from four four-star high school linemen, moving UCLA’s recruiting class up to No. 21 in the country. In the previous two years, UCLA signed three four-stars combined.

Darlington said there was so much interest in playing with Iamaleava, “the discounts started happening. Like if their price-point was at 6, and we were at $400,000, they were willing to do it. We lost out on probably three wide receivers because the school we were competing with came back and doubled the money.”

Since arriving home, Iamaleava has had to scramble to learn a new offense. Foster fired last year’s offensive coordinator Eric Bieniemy and replaced him with Indiana assistant Tino Sunseri. Iamaleava’s younger brother, Madden, has also transferred home to UCLA from Arkansas, causing his own contract issues.

Foster has loved what he’s seen and heard from Iamaleava so far.

“Nico’s arm talent is crazy, and to be 6-6, he’s very athletic,” Foster said. “He also has such composure. He’s very similar to Tua (Tagovailoa) personality-wise; he’s reserved but a leader. I think being home and being around these kids that he’s known has helped him too.”

“I want to bring championships back to Westwood,” said Iamaleava. “I know every guy in the locker room believes that. We’ve got a chip on our shoulder.”

(Top photo: Carlin Stiehl / Los Angeles Times via Getty Images)

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NIL

College Football Transfer Quarterback Market Could Reach $5 Million This Offseason

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December 21, 2025

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As programs across the country begin to settle into the NIL and revenue-sharing era of college athletics, it’s clear that the annual pay of key positions on the field is starting to take shape.

That’s especially true, of course, at the quarterback position, where ESPN’s Pete Thamel says that the annual pay in the transfer portal could approach all-time highs at the top of the market.

“I made some calls today, guys. Sources told me that the tip top of this quarterback market financially could reach $5 million for one season,” Thamel said in a College GameDay hit on Friday night.

Thamel mentioned where some of the biggest names on the market are trending, including Cincinnati quarterback Brendan Sorsby, TCU’s Josh Hoover and Nebraska’s Dylan Raiola.

“Sorsby’s been linked early to Texas Tech. Dylan Raiola there’s some smoke to Louisville, although maybe a playoff team jumps in late there. There’s been some early links between Indiana and Hoover, assuming that [Fernando] Mendoza goes pro.”

Thamel emphasized that supply and demand for the most important position on the field is driving prices up to historically high levels.

It’ll be interesting to see where the top players eventually land.

More College Football on Sports Illustrated





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Wisconsin’s new $104.5 million Under Armour deal could help launch athletics into NIL-era

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December 20, 2025

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The University of Wisconsin-Madison and Under Armour agreed to a 10-year, $104.5 million apparel relations extension on Nov. 24, retaining UA as the Badgers’ exclusive outfitter and injecting new funding into NIL.

The partnership with Under Armour first started in 2015 with the Badgers men’s basketball run to the Final Four. In the decade since, Athletic Director Chris McIntosh considers Under Armour one of the university’s “most valued partners.” 

In the recent history of Wisconsin football, the Badgers have struggled to compete with other Big Ten foes during the NIL era of college athletics. Since NIL was implemented into college sports in 2021, Wisconsin Football has experienced difficulties with gathering the funds necessary to recruit high-end talent. 

Under Armour’s sponsorship aims to help the Badgers further adapt to the NIL era of college football, including the transfer portal by giving the Badgers the ability to acquire great talent throughout the rest of the country. The contract contains a “starting sum of $175,000 annually”, that will continue to rise, to reward NIL contracts to Badger athletes. Under Armour is not only providing the Badgers with NIL, but they are also providing brand and business opportunities for UW athletes. 

In order to achieve success in the modern college football landscape, programs have to devote more monetary rewards than just scholarships to athletes. For example, the defending national champion Ohio State Buckeyes spent around $20 million in NIL on their program. 

In comparison to the Buckeyes, Wisconsin’s football budget is significantly less. After another abysmal football season and ranking towards the bottom of the Big Ten in NIL funds, this renewed contract with Under Armour will help catapult Wisconsin into the top half of the conference in NIL funds. 

Under Armour sponsors other notable football programs like Notre Dame and Texas Tech. These two football powerhouses — who finished the regular season  in the mix for the College Football Playoff — have seen direct benefits, such as new apparel, more flexibility, and better morale within their respective programs from their sponsorships with Under Armour. 

In a new era of collegiate athletics, the Badgers have found themselves trailing not just the Big Ten, but most Power-4 programs throughout the country as well. While their sponsorship with Under Armour doesn’t fix everything, it is definitely a step in the right direction for the future of Wisconsin Athletics. 

The Daily Cardinal has been covering the University and Madison community since 1892. Please consider giving today.



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No. 1 transfer portal quarterback predicted to join major college football program

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December 20, 2025

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The NCAA transfer portal will feature hundreds of players across all levels of college football in the 2026 offseason.

Prominent quarterbacks have begun to declare their intent to enter the transfer portal in the weeks before it opens. DJ Lagway, Josh Hoover, Rocco Becht and Dylan Raiola are among the Power Four quarterbacks who will be at a new school in 2026.

One of the first Power Four quarterbacks that decided to enter the transfer portal was Arizona State quarterback Sam Leavitt. He will have two seasons of eligibility at his next school.

One program linked to Leavitt when he enters the portal is Oregon. Leavitt is from West Linn, Oregon, just south of Portland and an hour and a half drive from Eugene by interstate highway.

Oregon has not started a quarterback that it recruited from high school for an entire season since Justin Herbert in 2019. Bo Nix, Dillon Gabriel and Dante Moore (transferred back) all came to the Ducks via the transfer portal.

The 6-foot-2, 205-pounder began his college football career at Michigan State in 2023. He played in a maximum of four games to keep his redshirt for the Spartans, passing for 139 yards, two touchdowns and two interceptions on 15-of-23 passing.

Sam Leavitt throws the ball in Arizona State's game against Houston.

Arizona State Sun Devils quarterback Sam Leavitt (10) | Mark J. Rebilas-Imagn Images

Leavitt transferred to Arizona State in the 2024 offseason. He started every game for the Sun Devils while accumulating 2,885 passing yards, 24 touchdowns and six interceptions while rushing for 443 yards and five touchdowns en route to their Big 12 Championship victory and subsequent College Football Playoff appearance.

The Big 12 named Leavitt its Freshman of the Year and Second-Team All-Big 12 for his heroics. The conference also named him as its Newcomer of the Week on multiple occasions. He finished 2024 with the most passing yards by a freshman in a season in Arizona State history.

Leavitt’s 2025 season was cut to just seven games due to injuries. He passed for 1,626 yards, 10 touchdowns and three interceptions while rushing for 306 yards and five touchdowns.

The Sun Devils will not start Leavitt in their bowl as he has declared his intent to leave. Arizona State (8-4, 6-3) will face ACC champion Duke (8-5, 6-2) in the Tony the Tiger Sun Bowl in El Paso, Texas on Dec. 31 (3 p.m. EST, CBS).

The NCAA transfer portal will officially open for all college football players looking for new destinations on Jan. 2, 2026. The portal will stay open until Jan. 16, 2026.



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This college football team is creatively approaching NIL like NFL free agency

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December 20, 2025

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The way college football operates in the NIL/revenue-sharing era has moved a lot closer to the NFL model, and one high-profile program is acknowledging that in a very public way.

USC has been announcing on social media that players have “re-signed” with the program, essentially acknowledging that all college football players are free agents each year now, thanks to the transfer portal and the ability to chase better compensation elsewhere.

A big one for the Trojans this week was quarterback Jayden Maiava’s decision to return to USC rather than pursue the NFL draft this year or a bigger payday from another school, but USC has publicized the return of more than two dozen players in this way — from starters to little-used freshmen and even its kicker.

Coach Lincoln Riley was asked about this new approach for his program.

“I think that’s something that should be celebrated. In this day and age, it’s almost more like an NFL team. Like, it’s an accomplishment to be welcomed back, and then on top of that, when you do have that option, it’s something that should be celebrated by a school or a program that somebody wants to continue on what’s being built or what they’ve already started at that place,” Riley said.

“… It’s changed so much on all accounts. It’s changed a lot for the players. It’s obviously changed a lot for us.”

USC overhauled its player personnel/recruiting department a year ago by hiring general manager Chad Bowden away from Notre Dame and building a new staff for him. Bowden has a reputation for thinking outside the box, so this was likely an idea that he and his staff came up with for the Trojans.

College football analyst Adam Breneman chimed in with his thoughts on USC’s “creative” approach to roster management.

“To me, USC has always been known for creativity. They’re in Los Angeles, the creative capital of the world, that’s where great things happen, and a great job here by USC’s creative department, having this idea. I think we’ll see teams around the country copy this, announcing the re-signing of players to new contracts for the upcoming season with NIL and rev-share deals,” Breneman said.

“Chad Bowden, the USC general manager, is ahead of his time. He’s innovative, he thinks forward, he’s proactive, and his staff clearly has something here, really great with announcing the re-signing of the roster at USC. What a great idea.”

USC may have indeed started something with this, as Missouri announced the return of star running back Ahmad Hardy in the same way.





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College Football Playoff is here, but sport’s soul is gone

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December 20, 2025

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Amid the spectacle of the College Football Playoff’s opening weekend — and the nagging sense that we’re watching a sport we no longer love — here’s the uncomfortable question no one in power seems eager to answer:

Is college football slowly turning off the very fans who built it?

The other day on our radio show, we asked a simple poll question: “What’s your excitement level for this year’s College Football Playoff?” The result wasn’t close. The runaway winner was: “Mild at best.”

No, it wasn’t a scientific poll by any means. But it was taken in a college-football-crazed state, in a city that hosts three bowl games, from listeners who have spent decades scheduling fall Saturdays around kickoff times. These are not casuals. These are the lifers.

And they sound tired.

College football has always thrived on passion — irrational, inherited passion. We fell in love with this sport because we were loyal to our hometown or home-state schools. Because our dads and moms went there. Because our grandparents wore the colors. Because even when our teams were bad, they were ours. We believed players loved our schools the way we did. We believed coaches were stewards of something bigger than themselves.

That belief is gone.

What we’re left with now is a sport that feels increasingly transactional, untethered from its own history, and openly hostile to the idea of loyalty. The transfer portal and NIL didn’t just change college football — they rebranded it. Players are no longer student-athletes growing into men within a program; they’re year-to-year contractors shopping their services to the highest bidder. And coaches are no longer culture builders; they’re free agents with obscene contracts and super-agents who are already negotiating new deals with new teams by midseason.

Lane Kiffin didn’t even wait for the College Football Playoff selection committee to put his Ole Miss team in the 12-team field before bolting for his next big job. Think about it: the head coaches from three CFP teams will be elsewhere next season, meaning in the most important tournament in the sport that a quarter of its leaders already had one foot out the door before the playoff even started.

That’s not continuity. That’s chaos.

And the collateral damage is everywhere. Bowl games — once the measuring stick of success — are now disposable. This year alone, Notre Dame opted out because it got snubbed by the CFP committee while Kansas State and Iowa State opted out because they lost their coaches. Bowls used to mean something. They were a reward, a destination, a final chapter. Now they’re an inconvenience.

Missouri coach Eli Drinkwitz didn’t mince words when he said earlier this week: “College football is sick.” He warned that the sport is “cracking” — not metaphorically, but structurally. Rules without consequences. Participation agreements nobody honors. Tampering without punishment. Freedom without guardrails.

UCF coach Scott Frost went even further. He said the quiet part out loud: “It’s broken.” And for that honesty, he was attacked. Not because he was wrong — but because he threatened those who benefit from the disorder. Frost described a world where participation agreements are ceremonial, salary caps are fiction and booster money determines competitive balance more than coaching or development ever could.

That’s not college football. That’s the NFL without contracts, unions or rules.

Minnesota coach P.J. Fleck summed it up best: “College football does not have any of what the NFL has in place. … I don’t think the general public actually knows what it looks like when you peel back the onion.”

And that’s the point. Fans (and coaches) are finally peeling it back — and they don’t like what they see.

Conferences now stretch from coast to coast, stripping the sport of its regional soul. Rivalries that once defined generations are disappearing in favor of television windows. Which brings us to a fair question for UCF fans: With USF no longer on your schedule, who’s your big rival? Answer: You don’t have one.

A sense of place used to matter in college football. Geography mattered. Identity mattered. Tradition mattered. Now everything is optimized for TV inventory and gambling markets.

Don’t get me wrong, college football is still idiot-proof. It will march on. ESPN needs the programming. Sportsbooks need the content. Saturdays will still be filled with games, spreads and parlays. The machine will not stop.

But what happens when the true fans — the ones who stayed and cheered through the losing seasons, NCAA sanctions and decades of irrelevance — start checking out emotionally? When excitement becomes obligation? When loyalty feels foolish?

We’re already seeing the signs. Fans less invested in bowls. Fans less connected to rosters that turn over annually. Fans who no longer recognize their own conferences. Fans who watch out of habit, not hope.

This isn’t about opposing player compensation. Players deserve to be paid. It’s not about nostalgia for unpaid labor or closed systems. It’s about structure, fairness and meaning. A sport without rules isn’t freedom — it’s anarchy. And anarchy is exhausting.

College football was never supposed to be perfect. It was supposed to be personal. It was supposed to mean something beyond the scoreboard. It was supposed to connect campuses, communities and generations.

Right now, it feels like a sport in disarray where even coaches and administrators are just  hopeless spectators to its unraveling. It’s so bad that they are begging the federal government to get involved. Can you name another multi-billion-dollar business that actively seeks governmental regulation?

The scariest part isn’t that coaches like Frost and Drinkwitz are speaking up.

It’s that we longtime fans are starting to quietly nod along and wonder why we’re still watching.

Yes, the College Football Playoff arrived this weekend and it’s never been bigger.

But, sadly, the sport itself has never felt emptier.

Email me at mbianchi@orlandosentinel.com. Hit me up on social media @BianchiWrites and listen to my new radio show “Game On” every weekday from 3 to 6 p.m. on FM 96.9, AM 740 and 969TheGame.com/listen

 



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$2.1 million transfer portal QB predicted to join College Football Playoff team

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5 hours ago

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December 20, 2025

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Aftter helping propel Arizona State to its first College Football Playoff run in 2024, quarterback Sam Leavitt is officially preparing to test the transfer market.

Multiple outlets report Leavitt intends to enter the portal when the window opens in January, and early lists of suitors already include Oregon, Indiana, LSU, and Miami. 

Leavitt’s 2025 season was cut short by a persistent foot injury that required surgery and ended his year after seven appearances.

Despite limited time, he finished the campaign with 1,628 passing yards, 10 touchdowns and three interceptions, and leaves Tempe with a two-year body of work that includes a 2024 breakout season (2,885 passing yards, 443 rushing yards, 29 total TDs).

ASU closed 2025 at 8–4 under coach Kenny Dillingham, going 6-3 in Big 12 play.

On Wednesday, Mike Golic Jr. weighed in on potential transfer portal destinations, explicitly linking Leavitt to Miami as a natural schematic fit.

“Sam Leavitt, to me, would be a fascinating fit at the University of Miami. We reckon Carson Beck is going to be out after this playoff run, and when I look at Sam Leavitt’s game, I think about the Miami offense they ran with Cam Ward, an offense predicated on the quarterback’s ability to drop back, create, and make plays with both his arm and his legs. That feels like a very easy comparison.”

Arizona State Sun Devils quarterback Sam Leavitt.

Tempe, Arizona, USA; Arizona State Sun Devils quarterback Sam Leavitt (10) against the Houston Cougars in the second half at Mountain America Stadium. | Mark J. Rebilas-Imagn Images

The Hurricanes went 10-2 this season and enter the postseason with a quarterback (Beck) who posted 3,072 passing yards and 25 passing touchdowns with a 74.7% completion rate.

However, despite Beck’s productive year as the starter and Miami’s CFP berth, the senior quarterback is widely expected to move on after the season, opening a potential vacancy at one of college football’s biggest brands.

Leavitt combines a CFP start, redshirt-sophomore eligibility, mobility, and a nationally ranked NIL valuation (estimated at $2.1 million), positioning him as one of the portal’s most attractive quarterbacks.

Read More at College Football HQ

  • $2.1 million QB ranked as top quarterback in college football transfer portal

  • $87 million college football coach predicted to accept Michigan head coaching job

  • Top transfer portal QB reportedly receives ‘multiple offers’ over $4 million

  • Kirby Smart sends strong message on Nick Saban before College Football Playoff



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