Nico Iamaleava lost the support of the pro-athlete folks, so where does that lead?

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It happens every time. A college athlete’s attempt at receiving fair market value for his or her talents in a multibillion-dollar industry becomes a story in some way, and the archaic-thinking keyboard warriors attack the athlete in favor of the industry.

Tennessee quarterback Nico Iamaleava is out at Tennessee, swiftly and shockingly, after his camp’s attempts to get more money went public this week. Here’s a sampling of the reaction:

“College football (is) a joke now! Y’all (might as) well just make college into a semi pro league! Actually hold players accountable to the contracts they sign!”

“Nico Iamaleava, your coach kicked you off the team because you wanted to hold out. You want to act like a pro, he’s going to treat you like a pro. Cautionary tale.”

“Tennessee drew a very hard line in the sand. Good for them.”

Who are these archaic-thinking keyboard warriors, you ask? Micah Parsons, Emmanuel Acho and Courtney Cronin, in order. An NFL player, a former college football star/Fox college football analyst and an NFL reporter for ESPN. In other words, people you would normally expect to take Iamaleava’s side.

The completely fractured and decaying state of college football, and the Nico Iamaleava situation.

A nuanced take: pic.twitter.com/TOyZe9LqOK

— Emmanuel Acho (@EmmanuelAcho) April 12, 2025

In other words, this is a moment. It needs to be one that gives oomph toward the push to what should be inevitable: actual contracts and collective bargaining, the only reasonable conclusion from here. It can’t deter us from remembering who got us here, the NCAA and its relentless lack of wisdom — a point Acho made in his “X” post, which also fairly criticized Iamaleava for an overplay of his hand.

And I really hope it doesn’t give oxygen to the dumbest NCAA Hail Mary, the appeal to lawmakers to help the cause of this lucrative, exploitative business while the courts rightfully blast away at it.

Sure, NCAA administrators continue to handle the entire situation terribly, as seen, for example, in the idea for a “clearinghouse” to approve name, image and likeness deals as part of the House v. NCAA settlement. But have you seen some of the ideas of these legislators?

College programs will pay athletes what they believe they are worth, because the rewards for winning and penalties for losing are too great to do anything else. That’s how a competitive business in a free market in a free country works.

So you figure out a way to let the employees — sorry, would you feel better about Student Athlete Employees? — bargain for actual revenue sharing that includes higher pay for higher performance and/or demand, multi-year deals and buyouts.

You don’t have constant free agency. You don’t have chaos that strains all involved. You don’t have kids bouncing from school to school, year after year, ending up with a bit more cash in the end but with less emphasis on education, less opportunity for lifelong relationships — and with no real place to call home as they move into the decades of reality of life after sports.

You have other headaches and unintended consequences. Of course you do. But there’s no headache more splitting or consequence more dire than the weakening of your product.

The conference commissioners, school presidents, athletic administrators and NCAA administrators who all have a hand in the policies of this member organization should understand this and get us to the best possible finish line as quickly as possible.

But no. Let’s determine “fair market value” on NIL deals. Let’s keep dancing around the heart of the matter with the deftness of Elaine Benes trying the foxtrot. The NCAA would come up with new drapes for a crumbling house foundation, a hanging car scent tree for a dead battery and Botox for congenital heart disease.

Of course, some of the politicians who have decided reforming college sports is worth their time would go gasoline and lit match on everything. Some of their ideas are so bad they aren’t worth amplifying, but understand, we’re talking restrictive and regressive, contrary to capitalism and Crest crammed back into plastic tubes.

Grandstanding and bluster, it all seems. But this is, indeed, a moment. There’s a lot of talk of a shift in public opinion. It’s the kind of talk that everyone who cares about college sports should hope doesn’t embolden the wrong people.

In reality, the shift has been a long-term thing, a calculation over time that player compensation plus free movement, minus boundaries of any sort, equals damage on multiple fronts. Also, every situation is different and we should be able to have conversations about this — about anything — without resorting to our respective corners and regurgitating canned groupthink responses.

I agree with the gist of what Parsons, Acho and Cronin said. Contracts should matter. The outcome of this “holdout” does make Iamaleava a cautionary tale, less so if he gets what he was seeking elsewhere, but performance to date did not warrant a raise. And Tennessee was right to not give in, especially after Iamaleava didn’t show up for practice and meetings Friday.

Had he performed like a future Heisman winner and first-round pick as a redshirt freshman last season, the raise would have probably been given months ago without so much as a public peep. That’s a good thing to keep in mind.

So is the precise extent of the “anti-athlete” commentary circulating among the informed and fair-minded. No reasonable person would call Iamaleava “selfish.” Everyone else in that program, in this industry, in any industry, wants to be compensated fairly. He’s guilty — or his camp is guilty— of being unrealistic.

If you’re a Tennessee fan roaring in approval for coach Josh Heupel and vilifying Iamaleava, please understand that if your coach had an Ohio State or USC or Oklahoma pursuing him and offering an enormous raise, he would at least let his agent take the call.

A lot of Tennessee fans were all over On3’s Pete Nakos for reporting on the situation Thursday, their anger inflamed when Iamaleava’s father, Nic, responded on “X” to a Nakos post and denied that the Iamaleavas were seeking more money. Nic Iamaleava started his response by calling the reporter, “Bi7ch Nakos.”

The next morning, his kid skipped practice. One day later, it was over. It’s a crazy story, even in this crazy world, populated as it is by characters such as Quarterback Dad, Student Athlete Employee, Overburdened Coach, Delusional Administrator, Clueless Politician, Angry Fan and Whining Writer. This was the moment Quarterback Dad made Archaic-Thinking Keyboard Warrior look smart by comparison.

(Photo: Jacob Kupferman / Getty Images)

This news was originally published on this post .

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