Tennessee moving on from Nico Iamaleava strikes a blow against never-ending NIL negotiations

There’s no player who better represents the influx of name, image and likeness cash into college athletics than Nico Iamaleava.

He’s the reported $8 million recruit. A five-star QB from California who relocated to Knoxville, Tennessee so he could take advantage of what was — at the time — a historic NIL deal for a high school junior. Tennessee quite literally went to court for him when the state’s attorney general sued the NCAA over rules enforcement as it investigated what it believed to be a pay-for-play bargain between the Vols and Iamaleava. The courts granted Tennessee an injunction, essentially breaking the backbone of the NCAA’s enforcement model.

So, it’s appropriate (ironic?) that his Tennessee career came to an end because of an alleged NIL dispute.