Tennessee football players threatened to sit out of the college football playoff game over NIL.
Over the weekend, news broke that Tennessee would be moving on from quarterback Nico Iamaleava and that he would be entering the transfer portal. The decision came after contract negotiations sparked up as Iamaleava wanted a new deal ahead of the 2025 season and did not show up for practice and meetings on Friday.
However, based on the latest reports, this started way before last week and it wasn’t just Iamaleava who was searching for money from the program. College football analyst Josh Pate detailed on his show on Sunday night that multiple players, including the former Tennessee quarterback, threatened to sit out of the team’s college football playoff game over NIL.
“This stuff was happening last December during the playoffs — with this kid included, but not just this kid. They were trying to get more money from Tennessee and other playoff teams before the playoffs. They were trying to leverage playoff participation,” Pate said.
Pate would go on to say why the players felt entitled to more pay.
“The explainer was, ‘Our client is being paid X amount of money to participate in 12 games, maybe a 13th if you make the conference championship game. But you guys made the playoff. He should make money money.’ This is the kind of BS that’s happening behind the scenes right now.”
This series of events has certainly been an eye opener in college football. There has been a collective belief amongst college football supporters that the current era of the sport is not sustainable, but this story peels back the curtain even more of just how crazy things have gotten.
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