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The starting quarterback at the University of Tennessee is no longer on the squad.
No, he didn’t commit an off-the-field issue. Well, he was theoretically off-the-field last week while his team was holding mandatory scrimmages prior to their annual spring football game.
Tennessee quarterback Nico Iamaleava (yes, it does sound a lot like “I’m-a-be-leavin”) refused to participate while attempting to renegotiate his lucrative Name, Image, and Likeness (NIL) deal to play for the Volunteers.
Nico signed an $8 million contract last year to play at Tennessee for up to four seasons.
Yes, you read that right. He made $2 million last fall playing college football for the University of Tennessee.
He wanted a 100% raise to $4 million beginning this year.
The former California high school star played well in his first season at Tennessee during 2024. Nico passed for 2,616 yards which included 19 touchdowns with just five interceptions.
Tennessee qualified for the first 12-team College Football Playoffs in 2024 with an exceptional 10-2 regular season record. The Vols were crushed by eventual national champion Ohio State 42-17 in the first round of the playoffs to finish 10-3.
The NIL Shot heard ’round the college football world
Earlier this year, former Georgia starting quarterback Carson Beck surprised many when he entered the NCAA transfer portal and signed with the University of Miami. He reportedly will receive $4 million for his final year of college football eligibility this fall.
Nico Iamaleava’s father (Nic) apparently took note.
Pops is the lead negotiator for his son and demanded that Tennessee should double its current $2 million/year NIL deal to a whopping $4 million this fall or his son would transfer.
The head football coach for the University of Tennessee has experience on both sides of this argument.
He was an even better college football quarterback than his petulant signal caller.
Josh Heupel played for the University of Oklahoma team which won the 2000 national championship. He was the Heisman Trophy runner-up and named first team AP All-American after that season.
As Tennessee’s head football coach, Josh Heupel knows the leadership responsibility which a quarterback must display to his teammates.
Coach Heupel’s current role demands that he must lead a team of 100 football players with 100 different sets of needs into one cohesive unit focused on winning football games.
Nico and his father made the poor decision to sit-out mandatory practices while his Tennessee teammates were working. Coach Heupel (who is the son of a former football coach) was not happy and fired the biggest shot heard in college football in recent years.
The coach dismissed the starting quarterback from the Tennessee football team late last week.
“There’s no one that’s bigger than the Power T”, said Coach Josh Heupel. “And that includes me.”
As expected, Nico Iamaleava immediately placed his name into the NCAA transfer portal. He and his father are shopping for a new football team to play for this fall.
Tennessee has two other scholarship quarterbacks on the roster. One of the two quarterbacks is an incoming college freshman just months removed from high school.
The Vols are likely “shopping” the transfer portal right now for a replacement quarterback to join the team.
In this NIL era, could Tennessee sign a former NFL quarterback with one year of college eligibility remaining?
Tennessee’s decision to dismiss their greedy young quarterback is being lauded by many fans and even (quietly) other college football coaches.
Relatively inexperienced college athletes are demanding and receiving more money than dozens of veteran NFL and UFL quarterbacks.
What would happen if a talented NFL veteran quarterback wanted a pay increase to play for a top college football team like Tennessee next fall?
Go ahead and laugh.
Would the head coach at Tennessee prefer to entrust his quarterback position to a 20-year old player with an overgrown ego or a 35-40-year old mature signal caller with more than a dozen seasons of playing against the highest caliber NFL defenses?
Would hiring a former NFL quarterback be allowed by the NCAA?
The NCAA has historically held that athletes moving into professional sports may not return to compete in the same sport in college after receiving pay for playing that sport.
That was then. Today is the new “Wild West of college athletics” era.
The NIL was originally intended to provide compensation to athletes who were able to utilize their fame to endorse products (such as media commercials for food, cars, etc.), sign autographs at trade shows, and the like.
That initial model would have allowed the top players in each sport to earn a few thousand dollars of cash outside of the traditional scholarship plus room and board provided by the university.
Today’s NIL has clearly morphed into a very lucrative pay-for-play scheme.
Even though Tennessee’s former starting quarterback apparently had signed a four-year deal, the player may still utilize the NCAA transfer portal to break that agreement and vamoose for another school during the designated transfer time periods.
Let’s assume Tennessee has some great attorneys and attempted to hire an NFL QB
It appears that the current NIL ceiling for college quarterbacks is about $4 million for the upcoming football season.
Here is a list of NFL quarterbacks who earned from $2 million up to $4 million in 2024:
J. J. McCarthy – Minnesota Vikings – $3.9 mm
Davis Mills – Houston Texans – $3.5 mm
Bo Nix – Denver Broncos – $3.4 mm
Case Keenum – Houston Texans – $3.3 mm
Justin Fields – Pittsburgh Steelers – $3.2 mm
Jimmy Garoppolo – Los Angeles Rams – $3 mm
Cooper Rush – Dallas Cowboys – $2.9 mm
Mason Rudolph – Tennessee Titans – $2.9 mm
Tyrod Taylor – New York Jets – $2.8 mm
Mac Jones – Jacksonville Jaguars – $2.8 mm
Carson Wentz – Kansas City Chiefs – $2.8 mm
Zach Wilson – Denver Broncos – $2.7 mm
Joshua Dobbs – San Francisco 49ers – $2.3 mm
Will Levis – Tennessee Titans – $2.2 mm
Mitch Trubisky – New England Patriots – $2 mm
Kenny Pickett – Philadelphia Eagles – $2 mm
There are a few dozen additional NFL back-up quarterbacks (most with exceptional college football careers) earning less than $2 million last season in 2024.
That list includes likely New Orleans Saints 2025 starting quarterback Spencer Rattler ($900,000 per year).
An additional group of talented quarterbacks is toiling in the United Football League (UFL) this spring.
Those players earn about $60,000 per season and would love to get a pay raise by playing one more season of college football for NIL loot.
My idea assumes that any current NFL or UFL player must have at least one year of college eligibility remaining.
Let’s make a theoretical case for 40-year old NFL quarterback Joe Flacco
Joe Flacco won the Super Bowl and the Super Bowl MVP as the starting quarterback for the 2012 NFL champion Baltimore Ravens.
After 11 seasons in Baltimore, Flacco later played in Denver, New York (Jets), Philadelphia, Cleveland, and Indianapolis.
Last week, Joe Flacco signed a new one-year $4 million contract to play for the Cleveland Browns once again this fall in 2025.
But…what if Joe Flacco had waited and heard a pitch from Tennessee this week?
Would the 40-year old quarterback rather hope for a chance to get on the field in with the Cleveland Browns this season or enroll in a Master’s program at the University of Tennessee and play one year of college football for the Vols for the same $4 million paycheck?
It’s a safe bet that Tennessee coach Josh Heupel would be glad to have Joe Flacco as the Vols’ starting quarterback this fall.
The coach has two young pups next in line to quarterback the team in the future. Joe Flacco would bring his experience from 17 seasons in the NFL to pick apart most college football defenses and show the younger quarterbacks how it’s done.
Bringing an NFL quarterback to play college football for one year would send a loud message to the other college athletes
Imagine if several relatively underpaid NFL quarterbacks sought to play one more year of college football (assuming they had one year of eligibility remaining, of course).
The big money schools of the SEC, Big Ten, ACC or Big 12 are doling out millions of NIL dollars for high school or college transfer players. Why not do the same to rent an experienced NFL quarterback with one year of college eligibility remaining?
A jolt of reality is needed soon to bring some sanity back to major college athletics.
I have no idea whether my “Rent-An-NFL-QB” plan would prevail in the courts.
It would seem quite practical as long as the bidding war for top talent continues in major college football.
Just a few short years ago, college football fans could never have believed that their team’s starting quarterback might (legally) earn millions every season.
Having a veteran NFL player return to play a final season in college football at a few major schools would send a clear message that two can play this new game.
Back to school, anyone?