Analyzing the Nico Iamaleava Contract Negotiations

By: Jonathan Tunney

April 25th, 2025

Photo Credit: Getty Images

For those that aren’t familiar, Nico Iamaleava was the University of Tennessee’s starting quarterback (QB) last season, throwing for 2,616 yards, 19 touchdowns, and 5 interceptions. Iamaleava also signed an NIL deal with Tennessee worth $8 million in high school. This deal was scheduled to pay Nico $2.4 million before taxes for the upcoming 2025-26 season. It’s important to note that Tennessee is one of the few states with no state income tax. Iamaleava and his camp were looking to renegotiate his NIL deal for more money, looking for around $4 million. During negotiations, Nico skipped practice on Friday, April 11th, the Saturday before Tennessee’s spring game. Tennessee didn’t take kindly to this and decided to move on from Iamaleva. With a surprisingly dry market for his services in the transfer portal, Nico ended up transferring to UCLA for the upcoming 2025-2026 season. His NIL contract is reportedly worth $1.75 million, which comes out to under $1 million after paying California taxes. Instead of getting a raise, Iamaleava ended up taking a pay cut. 

One reason Nico was forced to take a pay cut is that he decided to enter the spring transfer portal. Nico and his camp should have finished negotiations or entered the transfer portal in the winter transfer portal cycle. There were many more open spots and programs ready to pay big money for a transfer QB. Examples include Miami (FL), which signed Carson Beck to a reported $4 million NIL package for next season only, and Duke, which signed Darian Mensah to a reported $8 million NIL package for the next two seasons. Had Team Nico leveraged these options properly, they most likely would have been able to get a raise somewhat close to what they were looking for. In the spring portal, most large programs have already figured out what they want to do at the quarterback position and have also spent most of their NIL budgets in the winter portal cycle. Additionally, SEC rules state that if a player transfers within the conference during the spring portal, they must sit out the following season.  

This lessened Iamaleava’s options significantly, and UCLA quickly emerged as Nico's primary option. This transfer actually makes a lot of sense. UCLA didn’t get great QB play from starter Ethan Garbers last year, who threw for 2,727 yards, 16 TDs, and 11 INTs. Iamaleava is from Long Beach, and his little brother Madden has once again committed to UCLA, following Nico to Westwood via the transfer portal. Madden was originally committed to UCLA in high school before flipping to Arkansas on signing day. Schools such as USC, Notre Dame, North Carolina, and Tulane were originally linked to Nico Iamaleava but denied interest or backed out of the sweepstakes. With UCLA being the only real Power 4 option for Nico, he lost all leverage in NIL negotiations, resulting in him accepting a deal significantly below his $4 million demand.

This situation has the potential to affect Iamaleava’s earnings in the future as well. Most college football experts would say that UCLA does not have as talented a roster as Tennessee. Additionally, Nico now has to learn an entirely new offense and get used to new coaches in a shorter period than normal after missing spring practice. These factors may cause him to perform below expectations in 2025-26, which would hurt his draft stock for the upcoming 2026 NFL draft that many experts originally expected him to declare for. This could potentially cost him millions of dollars in his NFL rookie contract. Of course, there is another world where Nico realizes the potential that landed him an $8 million NIL deal out of high school, puts out great tape at UCLA, and is still a top NFL draft pick in the 2026 draft. Finally, Nico could always stay at UCLA for another year or hit the transfer portal once again to develop further before declaring for the 2027 NFL draft. This would result in more NIL negotiations for his 4th year of college, and delay his NFL contract earnings for another year.

While the pay decrease and social media responses may sting right now, Iamaleava still gets to make $1.75 million next year playing for a Big Ten program in the second-largest market in the US. This is a great opportunity for Nico, and with both Penn State and Ohio State on this year’s schedule, he’ll have every opportunity to ball out and become a top pick in the 2026 NFL draft. I wish him the best of luck in his future endeavors.