Michael Cohen
College Football and College Basketball Writer
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 feigned 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 leave Tennessee was around the time, you know, that I think the reports came out,” Iamaleava said. “Just false reports that made me not feel comfortable with the position I was in. But in the back of my head, I always wanted to come back home and be closer to my mom, be closer to my dad and just have my family, their support, at our games. In our Samoan culture, we’re always together, and that was the main thing for me, the driving factor for me to come back home.”
Though undoubtedly tinged with truth, Iamaleava’s comments seemed aimed at distancing himself from everything that happened in April, when what appeared to be a relatively successful partnership between quarterback and football program disintegrated not long after the Volunteers had reached the College Football Playoff for the first time in school history. In leading Tennessee to a 10-3 overall record and 6-2 mark in the SEC, Iamaleava threw for 2,616 yards with 19 touchdowns and only five interceptions as a redshirt freshman. He became the program’s first quarterback to win 10 games in a season since Casey Clausen in 2003, engorging expectations for what he might achieve across the remainder of his collegiate career.
Nico Iamaleava #8 of the Tennessee Volunteers looks to throw the ball during a first-round College Football Playoff game between Tennessee and Ohio State. (Photo by Robin Alam/ISI Photos/Getty Images)
But beginning in early April, as the Volunteers navigated spring practice, a series of reports from national media outlets detailed some apparent friction between Iamaleava’s camp and Tennessee regarding the player’s financial compensation. Those representing Iamaleava were reportedly seeking a renegotiated package that would pay him approximately $4 million for the upcoming season rather than the $2.4 million he was expected to earn. The disagreement, which was also said to have included potential concerns about the quality of Tennessee’s offensive line, incited frustration in the locker room and among members of the school’s administration, ultimately coming to a head when Iamaleava skipped practice on April 11. The next day, head coach Josh Heupel told reporters that he was moving on from the star quarterback because “no one is bigger than” the program. Iamaleava entered the transfer portal shortly thereafter and committed to UCLA the following week.
“Just false stuff about whether it was a financial thing or not,” Iamaleava said. “My driving factor to come back home was my family. I hope every Tennessee fan understands that. It was really one of the hardest decisions that I ever had to make. But, you know, I had to do what was best for me and my family. Ultimately, I wanted to come back home and be closer to my family.”
It is difficult to reconcile the idea of someone who has been so thoroughly intertwined with the relatively brief history of NIL — from his record-setting agreement in high school to his highly-paid position as the starting quarterback at Tennessee — claiming to have separated himself from the financial apparatus that so clearly surrounds him, and many other elite players, in the sport’s modern era.
Time and again, Iamaleava told reporters in Las Vegas that “I don’t really focus on NIL,” because the only things he worries about are football and academics, with his parents and business representatives handling the rest. He reiterated that social media has never been a significant part of his daily life — “I’m a big YouTube guy,” he said — which meant that tuning out the rampant discussion surrounding his motives and reputation was fairly simple. He spent most of his time during the fallout with Tennessee playing video games and only learned about the various media reports when informed by his cousins, to whom he repeatedly said, “I don’t care.”
Nico Iamaleava is pictured on the sidelines during the UCLA Football Spring Showcase. (Photo by Ric Tapia/Getty Images)
Iamaleava maintained that posture in Las Vegas by declining to discuss the specifics of his new NIL agreement with UCLA, which will reportedly pay him just shy of $2 million this season. His new head coach, DeShaun Foster, vouched for that version of Iamaleava — rather than the more selfish ilk portrayed on the internet — when asked about his quarterback’s demeanor since joining the program after spring practice.
“I played with [Hall-of-Fame defensive end] Julius Peppers,” Foster said, “and they’re very similar, you know? Larger than most humans but kind of don’t want that attention. I just like that because, you know, he’s human and you can kind of tell he’s a team guy and a family guy. A lot of people kind of want that attention for themselves, and he’s not somebody that does that. It just felt good to know that we got the right type of quarterback.”
But what Iamaleava didn’t shy away from during his appearance at Big Ten Media Days was laying out the blueprint he hopes to follow at UCLA, which is entering Year 2 under Foster after finishing 5-7 overall and 3-6 as a Big Ten debutant last fall. If all goes well on a personal level for Iamaleava, whose commitment to the Bruins prompted presumptive starting quarterback Joey Aguilar, a winter transfer from Appalachian State, to re-enter the portal and take Iamaleava’s place at Tennessee, this will be his only season with the program before entering the NFL Draft. And if all goes well as a group for the Bruins, who have already landed verbal commitments from three blue-chip recruits and eight high school prospects rated among the top 500 players overall since signing Iamaleava, they’ll claw their way toward conference respectability after finishing 12th in 2025.
Still, there is something ironic about Iamaleava’s continued rebrand coming against the backdrop of Los Angeles, the entertainment capital of the world, where scores of eyeballs will monitor his every move given everything he’s been through the last few years. It’s just one more juxtaposition for a player who claims he wants to leave that chapter of his life behind.
“I can only speak for my game and how I am off the field, how I am as a person,” Iamaleava said. “I know I’m a great person. I know what I bring to the table. My thing is to go out there and perform on the football field.”
Michael Cohen covers college football and college basketball for FOX Sports. Follow him at @Michael_Cohen13.
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