When Nico Iamaleava first agreed to his NIL deal with the Volunteers in the spring of 2022, it was set to pay him around $8 million over four years through Tennessee’s NIL collective, Spyre Sports Group. However, things shifted over the past year.
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The 20-year-old quarterback found success on the field, leading the Vols to the playoffs, where his team lost against the eventual champs. Riding that momentum, Iamaleava pushed for even more money from his school — a move that ultimately led to Tennessee parting ways with him.
Cam Heyward caught wind of this ordeal and had a few things to say about it. The Pittsburgh Steeler said he supports players wanting to be paid their worth. But he also added that there should be a better way to handle situations like this moving forward, as this is the new reality of college football.
“I think there’s a better way to handle it,” Heyward said on an episode of Not Just Football. “I’m all for every player getting their money… But like, it’s the Wild Wild West, the NIL is what it is. It’s a new NFL, I mean, it’s paid like the NFL. But it’s a new college football, and the teams that aren’t willing to adjust, shame on you.”
The NIL does indeed feel like the Wild Wild West at the moment. The most prestigious schools with the biggest payrolls have been scooping up the best recruits and transfers. This leaves the small schools to fight over the scraps. And even if a small school has a standout player, you better believe they’ll be playing for a bigger school next season.
What Heyward said needed to be said. The NIL is what it is at this point, and it feels almost unfixable. But one thing that could certainly help is implementing a salary cap for each team.
Heyward on Salary Caps in CFB
Later in the podcast, Heyward’s co-host asked if he thought the NCAA would eventually institute a salary cap. The co-host argued it would prevent schools from spending too much money. Here’s what Heyward had to say:
“I think they’re trying to [hit a salary cap] by having general managers be a part of teams. I don’t know if the college football players would ever go for that because they would have to collectively bargain for four years or five years, and then not be a part of it. That’s really hard… It’s going to have to deal with inflation, too. It’s just going to keep growing.”
What Heyward is saying echoes what other pundits have been saying about NIL deals since their inception. There needs to be more rules and regulations. It feels like the rich programs are only getting richer with talent, which is why a school like Tennessee doesn’t seem too worried about letting Iamaleava go over $4 million. They probably have another great QB option lined up, who they’ve paid an insane amount to play for them.
However, as Heyward points out, creating a framework around regulating NIL money wouldn’t be easy. NFL contracts are allowed to be done because of collective bargaining deals that the NFLPA works out with the league. There is no NCAA Players Association, but maybe there needs to be. Yet, like Heyward says, it would be hard to get athletes to feel motivated to do it, being that they’ll be gone in four to five years.
If Iamaleava’s situation doesn’t show how messy the current state of NIL deals are in college football, then we don’t know what does. Nico has pushed us to think about NIL money in a different way at the moment. But things like this need to occur to expose the framework if anything is ever going to be done.
