Last spring, Nico Iamaleava became the poster child for the name, image and likeness era’s “chaos.”
After leading Tennessee to a 10-3 record, Iamaleava reportedly tried to double his $2 million NIL payday, skipping a spring practice in an effort to force the Volunteers’ hand. The negotiations and holdout tactic ended with Iamaleava leaving Tennessee.
The former five-star recruit will instead lead the UCLA Bruins this season, starting with Saturday’s opener against the University of Utah.
It’s a situation that has left Utah coach Kyle Whittingham working to try to slow down a dynamic dual-threat quarterback on the field — while also pondering if there might be a way to calm college football’s NIL chaos in the future.
Whittingham wouldn’t comment on Iamaleava’s spring holdout, but the Utes’ coach did say the idea of multiyear revenue-sharing contracts could be a step toward slowing the rush of players, like Iamaleava, from leaving via the transfer portal.
“Multiyear contracts, I think there’s some merit to that,” Whittingham said. “I think somehow we’ve got to get to the point where — again I say a minor league NFL not technically, but theoretically — we have the same type of setup, same structure, salary cap, that type of thing.
“With it will probably come a union, a players’ union and all that. But what we do right now is not sustainable. I don’t believe it is, personally, and so they’ve got to figure out a way to get some sanity to the whole thing. The prices are spiraling out of control for the NIL or rev share monies now. It’s still in a place where I don’t think you can continue this way without some major changes.”
In a recent town hall, Utah Athletics Director Mark Harlan also said he could see multi-year contracts from revenue sharing result in fewer players entering the transfer portal.
“If you’re going after a very high-profile athlete, we may be going up against XYZ who’s not offering multi-year,” Harlan said.
The AD said it’s too early to tell if the system would work and prevent the mass migration of players from entering the portal.
“Maybe they don’t want a multi-year because they want to play really well and go try to sell themselves in the portal,” he said. “Listen, it’s a tough deal. I do think there has been some of this that is going to have to be solved by federal legislation. I will say there’s more momentum there than there has been.”
But he said offering multi-year deals is something the U. is exploring.
“We’re just starting, so it’ll be interesting to see,” Harlan said. “But there’s language in these contracts that talks about possible loss of value if they leave. We’re just all going to play it out.
“I don’t want to hold kids back, [and] I’m not in the business for that. So we’re just going to have to kind of figure it out as we go.”