NIL
Tom Allen, Clemson fit like a glove
It’s a big year for Clemson, to put it lightly. The program’s rise and fall have been well chronicled, but we’ll throw in one stat just because I can’t resist: Clemson lost more than twice as many ACC games in the past four years (seven) than they did in their dynastic 6-year run from 2015-20 (three). Even in 2022, when Clemson went undefeated in ACC play, they lost by double digits to Notre Dame and Tennessee, and to an 8-win South Carolina team. The Tigers’ success in the late 2010s wasn’t going to last forever, but the fact that Clemson’s inevitable fall coincided with the rise of the NIL era — and Dabo Swinney’s many, many quotes on the matter — led to many praying on his demise.
Clemson snuck into the College Football Playoff by upsetting SMU in the ACC Championship. (A brief moment of reflection of how that game ended, again because I can’t resist: After blowing a 17-point lead, Clemson returned a kickoff to near midfield with nine seconds left, completed a 17-yard pass, and then Nolan Hauser booted an ACC Championship record 56-yard field goal to avoid an overtime that Clemson probably would’ve lost.) It boggles the mind to think about how the narrative around Clemson would be different today if the final 16 seconds of that game didn’t play out the way they did and a 9-4, 20th-ranked Clemson ended its season in the Duke’s Mayo Bowl instead of the CFP, but they did, and now here we are.
And so 2025 sets up as kind of a reckoning that no one really asked for at Clemson. Even though Clemson is playing the NIL and portal game along with everyone else, it still sets itself apart from the rest of college football as something of a shining city on a hill. Is this a 9-figure business in a cutthroat pursuit of a national title or an extended summer camp? Why not both?!
“I tell people all the time that playing at Clemson is the closest thing you can get to that feeling of playing on a high school football team, that when you take the field you’re playing with the same guys,” Walker Parks, Clemson’s sixth-year senior offensive guard, told ESPN. “It makes a difference, man. You grow up with these dudes.”
The college football pundit class sees an elite team (FootballScoop’s Pre-Preseason Top 25 had them at No. 4) with elite talent (ESPN’s Matt Miller 2026 mock draft had three Tigers in his top six) even though Clemson was not elite last season, particularly on defense. Defensive linemen TJ Parker and Peter Woods’s reputations, Swinney said, have out-run their production to this point as college players. “The last time I saw them out there, there was a running back running for 80 yards (at Texas),” he said last month. “Same dudes.”
Defensive coordinator Wes Goodwin is now at Oklahoma, and Tom Allen was hired away from Penn State. (Defensive tackles coach Nick Eason was elevated to co-coordinator, and Mickey Conn lost his co-coordinator title while remaining pass game coordinator and adding co-special teams duties.) Allen explained back in January that this move was about family and fit. Taking the Clemson job puts Tom and his wife Tracy within one state of all three of their children. “For my wife to be able to see her grandchildren on a consistent basis, you can’t replace that,” Allen said at the time. And then here’s Allen on the fit with his new boss. “I just think there’s a lot of similarities,” he said at Clemson’s media day. “We read the same books, you know, we have a lot of the same values. We have a similar philosophy on life, what’s important to us.”
That’s great and all, but the last two national champions ranked first and fourth in yards per play defense. Clemson was 64th last season. What’s Allen doing to improve the product on the field?
The tackling, for starters. “That, to me, is the one thing that I probably put the most emphasis on. Why? Because it’s the one thing that every kid completely controls,” Allen said. “Every player completely controls his effort, so those were the things that we wanted to keep emphasizing as we are going into camp.”
“If you don’t have the right technique, you’re going to hear it,” Swinney said back in the spring.
You get what you emphasize in coaching, and everything Allen emphasis is in bold and underlined.
“His energy allows you to want to come to work each and everyday and put everything on the line for him,” linebacker Jeremiah Alexander said. “He just allows us to play fast and physically, keeping the play calls simple and we are just able to go out there and play ball, not thinking a lot.”
“Every single thing is watched and accounted for,” added linebacker Wade Woodaz. “Every stat, every single rep and you will be held accountable, if you do good or if you do bad. You’ll be praised when you do well, then when you do bad, you’ll know about it.”
One more, from linebacker Dee Crayton. “His energy, and what he brings to the table for us as a defense, [it] just makes us want to go out there and play hard everyday. It’s something you can’t explain.”
Will Clemson dazzle opposing offensive coordinators with the latest cutting-edge schemes? Maybe. Probably not. Will Clemson get a lot more out of its players simply because Tom Allen is in the building? Almost certainly yes.
Time will tell if that will prove to be enough to win a national title and end the years-long debate surrounding this program with an exclamation point. But Tom Allen fits everything Clemson is and is not, and that right there is enough for Dabo Swinney.
Updated Dec. 22, 2025, 10:57 p.m. ET
Quarterback Nico Iamaleava is returning to UCLA football for a second season to play under new coach Bob Chesney, the team announced Dec. 22.
The former Tennessee quarterback had transferred to UCLA in April. The Bruins went 3-9 this past season, during which DeShaun Foster was fired after an 0-3 start.
Iamaleava completed 64.4% of his passes for 1,928 yards and 13 touchdowns, with seven interceptions in 11 games. He also rushed for 505 yards and four touchdowns. He did not play at Ohio State in November due to a concussion.
Nico Iamaleava spent two seasons with Tennessee football before exit
Iamaleava played 18 games in two seasons at Tennessee, and started all 13 games during UT’s College Football Playoff run in 2024.
The QB threw for 2,616 yards with 19 touchdowns and five interceptions in 2024, but was less efficient in SEC play. He threw nine touchdowns in eight conference games, but four of those were against Vanderbilt in the regular-season finale.
In his UT career, he completed 241 of 379 passes for 2,930 yards with 21 touchdowns and five interceptions. He redshirted in 2023 behind starter Joe Milton.
Why did Nico Iamaleava and Tennessee football split?
Tennessee coach Josh Heupel informed the Vols that Iamaleava was no longer a member of the team prior to the April 12 spring game, ending the relationship between UT and Iamaleava amid an apparent NIL dispute.
Iamaleava skipped the Vols’ final spring practice on April 11, the morning after On3’s Pete Nakos reported ongoing negotiations between Iamaleava and UT. His NIL deal reportedly paid him more than $2 million per year.
ESPN’s Chris Low, citing sources, reported that Iamaleava’s representatives wanted his NIL pay increased to $4 million per year. The family used the possibility of him entering the transfer portal as leverage.
Mike Wilson covers University of Tennessee athletics. Email him at michael.wilson@knoxnews.com and follow him on X @ByMikeWilson. If you enjoy Mike’s coverage, consider a digital subscription that will allow you access to all of it.
Dec. 23, 2025, 5:35 a.m. ET
If you watched any part of Ole Miss’ 41-10 blowout of Tulane, the one common theme you felt was that the absence of former head coach Lane “Benedict” Kiffin was not acknowledged by the home fans; they even appeared to embrace it. It took a while for Rebel Nation to realize it but Kiffin simply was never “one of them” and, while he built the program, he did not measure up to the “Ole Miss family.” Most Rebel fans would probably tell you now they’d rather lose without him than win with him. Kiffin has now been fully exposed and St. Nick (Saban, now known as Mr. Hypocrite) and Pete Carroll, his self-proclaimed advisers, should be ashamed for their comments supporting the manner in which he tried to negotiate his way to both coaching one team and recruiting for another simultaneously. One is the GOAT who ran away from NIL and the transfer portal while the other is a recognized cheater by many. The best part is Kiffin’s LSU Tigers play at Mississippi next year. Good riddance!
Dec. 23, 2025, 6:07 a.m. ET
Arizona State football coach Kenny Dillingham says he was never offered the Michigan job. Never got to that point.
This, of course, isn’t the story nor the takeaway from Dillingham’s dalliance with the Wolverines.
The irony of the state of Arizona’s highest-paid public employee begging for private donations to compete at the highest level of college football is where this bizarre story begins.
“We live in Phoenix, Arizona. You’re telling me there’s not one person who could stroke a $20 million check right now?” Dillingham said after agreeing to a new contract worth more than $37 million over the next five years.
That’s right, the guy whose future could never be more secure, sees the immediate horizon line for the Arizona State football program. And frankly, it’s financially unstable at best — and a house of cards at worst.
It’s Arizona State today, but could be Kansas State or Colorado or North Carolina State or Virginia Tech or Boise State — or any of the other 100-plus Bowl Subdivision teams not protected by the golden parachute of the Big Ten and SEC.
Coaches at those 34 schools in the two big conferences — many of those institutions born on third base from long-term association with the leagues before the financial boom of television media rights — aren’t publicly calling out dignitaries and alums associated with their schools.
They’re not standing during a media availability and pleading for the next Cody Campbell to please step up. Or else.
Dillingham made it very clear that college football is about those who wish to spend money, and those who don’t. This isn’t about revenue sharing between schools and players, this is all about private NIL funding.
This is about the dirty underbelly of the sport that can’t be legally controlled. A growing vice that doubles and triples the obstacles faced by conferences chasing the Big Ten and SEC.
It’s bad enough that mega media rights deals give the Big Ten and SEC a huge competitive advantage over the rest of college football. It’s downright sinister that those same schools have deep pocket boosters willing to spend tens of millions in private NIL deals to eliminate all doubt.
Sam Leavitt led Arizona State to the Big 12 title and the College Football Playoff in 2024, and returned to Tempe this season for another run. A foot injury ended his season early, and now he’s headed to the transfer portal looking for a new home.
Not because he doesn’t think he can win big with the Sun Devils — he already proved that. He’s in the portal, like so many other players, to strike when its hot and score a deal before moving onto the NFL.
What are the odds he signs with a Big Ten or SEC school? A program which has boosters that can pay him an outrageous salary through a private NIL deal.
Do you really blame Leavitt?
Do you really blame Campbell, Texas Tech’s billionaire booster, who built a championship-level team with a $25 million roster — and the Red Raiders responded by winning the Big 12 and earning a first round bye in the CFP?
They’re just following the rules, and until a different set of rules is in place, they’ll take advantage of it.
That’s why Dillingham sounded like a panhandler last weekend, begging — literally begging someone, anyone, in The Valley to jump on board and throw money at the program. He even specifically called out school alums Phil Mickelson and Jon Rahm.
Hey, Kenny, while you’re at it, why not place a call to the sheiks in Saudi Arabia? See if their Public Investment Fund (PIF) is interested in sports washing with the second-most popular sport in America.
Because if you’re reaching out to Mickelson and Rahm, you’re reaching out to the Saudis — who own LIV Golf — by proxy. The only difference between the PIF and Utah’s new $500 million agreement with Otro Capital is one group of investors has a long line of human rights violations.
The other is a financial shark, whose only goal is to make money.
Any way they can.
“College football is absolutely chaotic right now,” Dillingham said. “You’ve got to be able to have a plan to be aggressive in this thing for three, four, five years down the road. If you don’t have that, you’re a ticking time bomb for failure.”
This nonsense isn’t going to end until players are considered employees, and players collectively bargain their best deal. Until FBS conferences go to market as one, and sell their games to make double or more than the current market value of $4 billion-plus annually.
That move will allow universities to restrict player movement through multi-year contracts, and find a fair and equitable postseason for all. One that doesn’t include charity for the Group of Five conferences, who have no business in a playoff unless invited based on merit (see: Boise State, 2024).
But that move also means players would go from earning about 20 percent of media rights revenue to likely 45-50 percent. NFL players currently make 48 percent of the media rights.
That’s why the Big Ten and SEC don’t want players collectively bargaining. It has nothing to do with the pollyanna idea sold by conference commissioners that players, “don’t want to be employees.”
If they’re going to earn 20 percent, who wants to deal with the headache of collectively bargaining? Move that number to 45-50 percent, and watch how many players say they’re all in.
Then maybe their coaches wouldn’t have to shamelessly beg for cash, mere hours after signing a new $37 million dollar contract. Or else.
Matt Hayes is the senior national college football writer for USA TODAY Sports. Follow him on X at @MattHayesCFB.
As Indiana prepares to host its first-ever College Football Playoff game as the No. 1 seed, the Hoosiers are quietly already planning for 2026.
Fernando Mendoza, a redshirt junior transfer who led the Hoosiers to a 13-0 regular season, won the 2025 Heisman Trophy after throwing 2,980 yards and a national-best 33 passing TDs and is widely seen as an early NFL first-round prospect.
Should Mendoza depart for the draft, Indiana would be tasked with replacing an elite, NFL-caliber starter, which explains why numerous quarterbacks expected to enter the transfer portal have been linked to the Hoosiers.
On a December 20 episode of “Hoosiers Football Tailgate,” host Coach Griff specifically named TCU quarterback Josh Hoover, who announced he will enter the transfer portal and skip the Alamo Bowl, as a name Indiana should watch.
“I like this guy as a definite target for Indiana,” Griff said. “So, Josh Hoover, keep an eye on him as a potential target… The one I think they’ll really try to get is Hoover.”
Hoover was a three-star recruit out of Rockwall-Heath (Texas) and initially committed to Indiana in 2021 before flipping to TCU after the school extended an offer.
He then redshirted in 2022 and became the starter in 2023, producing breakout numbers in 2024 with 3,949 passing yards, 27 passing touchdowns, and 11 interceptions with a 66.5% completion rate.
In 2025, Hoover threw for 3,472 yards and 29 TDs, with 13 INTs, and projects among the most productive returning QBs in 2026 on career totals of 9,629 passing yards, 80 total TDs, and a career passer rating of 147.8.
On3’s NIL valuations list also shows Hoover ranking among the most marketable college quarterbacks, with a valuation in the neighborhood of $2.1 million.
Hoover is an intriguing option for Indiana due to his proven production and Power Five experience, positioning him as a potential one-year, plug-and-play solution as Curt Cignetti prioritizes continuity.
There is also a “full-circle” aspect to his recruitment, as Hoover originally committed to Indiana before flipping to TCU in 2021.
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Two teams that have really embraced the NIL era are set to meet on New Year’s Day. Oregon‘s win over James Madison advanced them to the College Football Playoff quarterfinals, where Texas Tech was waiting on the other side. Now, it’s Dan Lanning vs. Joey McGuire in the Orange Bowl with a lot of resources put into rosters.
Oregon has been at the forefront of NIL since its inception, especially under Lanning. Texas Tech could be considered the new kid on the block after major investment from a few donors. Even so, McGuire sees some similarities between the two when it comes to winning at whatever cost.
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“They’ve got a great booster in Phil Knight that really said, ‘We’re going to go win at the highest level and there’s no excuse when it comes to finance.’ You turn around and I think that we’re showing that we’re doing that. I think we’re really comparable,” McGuire said.
“We’ve got guys that have stepped up and done a great job. I kind of call them the ‘Big Five’ whenever you talk about Cody and John, Mike, Dusty, and Gary. Those guys have, along with everybody else in Red Raider Nation, but those guys have really led the charge. So, we’re kind of comparable on and off the field in this team. They’ve just done it for a little bit longer. That’s what we’re trying to do.”
As he said, McGuire is looking to put together a run similar to Oregon. All four years since hiring Lanning have been a resounding success, finishing with double-digit wins in all of them. This is the program’s second College Football Playoff appearance in the 12-team format, just missing out in 2023 due to a Pac-12 Championship loss.
Oregon won the Big Ten in its inaugural season inside the conference. Texas Tech can check that box already though, winning the Big 12 for the first time in school history. Advancing in the CFP would be a sweet bonus.
No matter the result on Jan. 1, Texas Tech is positioning itself to be successful moving forward. The 2026 recruiting class ranked 20th in the country but No. 1 in the Big 12 per the Rivals Industry Team Rankings. This is all before raiding the NCAA transfer portal, something McGuire and his staff did so well with last offseason.
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