AILSA CHANG, HOST:
In 2022, then-high school sensation Nico Iamaleava made headlines when he signed a multimillion dollar deal to play quarterback for the University of Tennessee. But last week, the school announced that he is leaving the university over a contract dispute. You heard that right - a contract dispute involving a college athlete. The announcement has sent shockwaves through the college football world. It leaves even more questions about how college athletes are paid. Richard Johnson covers college football for CBS Sports. He's been following all of this and joins us now. Welcome.
RICHARD JOHNSON: It's great to be here.
CHANG: Great to have you. OK, so just give us the main details here. Like, what exactly was at issue between the University and Iamaleava?
JOHNSON: Yeah, the quickest way to say it is that Iamaleava went back to Tennessee, I think, multiple times asking for a raise. And pretty much what's at issue here is that Iamaleava's camp wanted a number that's a little bit closer to $4 million, and I think Tennessee was quite comfortable with a number that's closer to what he's making now, which is a little bit closer to $2 million. So there was a gulf. And there were also repeated approaches, as I understand it, from Iamaleava's camp to get a raise on his deal. And basically, things came to a head a few days before the spring game after a couple months of apparently this back and forth.
CHANG: And why is this decision of Iamaleava to walk this late in the game - so to speak - why is this causing so much upheaval in the college football world right now?
JOHNSON: Yeah, well, it's a pretty big deal. I mean, Tennessee's a good team. They went to the college football playoff last year. They lost in the first round, but they did make it. Iamaleava's first year as a starter was 2024. One thing of note is he wasn't actually that good for them. He was a very highly touted recruit and a highly touted prospect, but his first year as a starter, he didn't really light the world on fire. They kind of made it to the college football playoff in spite of him.
CHANG: OK, so maybe not the best player, but there was so much drama around this contract negotiation. Do you expect more failed negotiations like this to happen in college sports? I mean, how do you think schools will navigate this in the future?
JOHNSON: Yeah, the issue inherent here is that it's a contract. There's something on paper, certainly, that tied him to Tennessee's third-party collective. But the issue is there aren't even base-level parameters like when you can negotiate. Like, with an NFL contract - the NFL has had a collective bargaining agreement since 1968 - there is a firm window when you can negotiate, for instance, with a free agent or when you become a free agent, for instance. College football - college sports does not have that.
So effectively, what you have is, sure, I've got a piece of paper that is binding me to you, but it's a perpetual negotiation for a lot of these high-level athletes. A lot of these high-level athletes, their handlers, their parents - in Iamaleava's case, his dad...
CHANG: Yeah.
JOHNSON: ...Is going behind Tennessee's back and kind of shopping him around a little bit to try to see what the best price is. Now, maybe it's because he really wanted to leave or maybe it was just a leverage play.
CHANG: Well, then what is next for Iamaleava? Like, will he just go to another college team at this point? Can he? How much leverage does he have?
JOHNSON: Well, he's in the transfer portal. So he will find a home. He's talented enough to find a home. Now, I'm not sure that the home he finds will be a Top 10 or a Top 15 school - Top 15 college football program. And I'm not sure that the home he finds will even be at the price that Tennessee was paying him per year, but he'll land somewhere just because he does have talent. He's got skills.
CHANG: Well, we will have to watch this saga unfold. Richard Johnson covers college football for CBS Sports. Thank you so much, Richard.
JOHNSON: Thank you.
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