The college football spring transfer portal opened up on Wednesday and all anybody seems to be talking about it the future of Tennessee quarterback Nico Iamaleava.
After Iamaleava failed to renegotiate his NIL contract with the Volunteers, the former five-star recruit entered the portal with the reported hopes of gaining a more lucrative deal elsewhere. Reports state that Iamaleava is seeking $4 million per year, a significant increase from the roughly $2 million per year he was making on his old Tennessee deal.
So far, it looks like Iamaleava and his camp may have not read the market as well as they thought, with North Carolina and Tulane recently dropping out of his sweepstakes.
ESPN's Pete Thamel delivered a somber analysis of Iamaleava's current transfer market on the Pat McAfee Show and admitted the young quarterback could be in for more rejections if he doesn't lower his price.
"Let's start with his market, Pat," Thamel said Wednesday. "What is certain about Nico's market is that he will not get what he's asking, and he will not get the $4 million-ish dollars that was desired from Tennessee that will be top of the market in this college football 2025 season. That is not going to happen.
"What's expected is he's going to get less than what he was making, which is somewhere in the low-to-mid $2 million range as part of his initial then-historic deal that got him to Tennessee. What's happening right now is that his market is dropping. It's bottoming out. I am not going to be hyperbolic and say, 'He has nowhere to go' or 'He's not going to end up anywhere' because he is a very good player. ... There will be someone who takes Nico."
"Nico Iamaleava isn't gonna get the money that he's asking for..
— Pat McAfee (@PatMcAfeeShow) April 16, 2025
What's expected is he's gonna get less than what he was making at Tennessee..
His market is dropping right now but there will be somebody who takes Nico" ~ @PeteThamel #PMSLive pic.twitter.com/Ex2xFgXyyn
Iamaleava proved his worth as a talented though mid-range SEC quarterback in his first season as Tennessee's starter in 2024, helping lead the Vols to their first-ever College Football Playoff.
Even so, his raw talent may not be enough. Thamel went on to give two reasons why Iamaleava may not get the deal he's after: for one, it's timing. Many teams have already paid their quarterbacks for the upcoming season. For another, Iamaleava is seen as a "high-leverage risk" as the most public figure in college football at the moment, and schools may be worried about the whole situation backfiring badly.
So, the schools who have maintained modest interest in him—like UCLA, reportedly—are staying patient, holding their ground and ultimately waiting for Iamaleava to budge.
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This article was originally published on www.si.com as College Football Insider Got Brutally Honest About Nico Iamaleava’s Transfer Market .
