'College GameDay' Host Throws Shade at Rising Star Nico Iamaleava

Ever wonder if being a star athlete is all about the game, or if it’s also about playing the game off the field? Well, here’s a tale that might make you chuckle—well, sort of, in a “that’s how the cookie often crumbles” kind of way. Nico Iamaleava, a former Tennessee quarterback with a name that kinda sounds like a hip-hop artist, hit a snag. He demanded more NIL money, held out, and then, oopsie, transferred to UCLA. Not exactly the smoothest move from the playbook, if you ask me. And Rece Davis from ESPN, yes, that suave college football commentator with a sage beard, had some words about the drama that unfolded. Did Nico fumble the ball by not having a backup plan before he turned the tables on Tennessee? Let’s dive into this intriguing case that only adds to college sports’ endless saga of love, betrayal, and, well, money… LEARN MORE.

ESPN “College GameDay” host Rece Davis addressed a lot of topics on the show’s podcast this past week, including the situation involving ex-Tennessee quarterback Nico Iamaleava.

After reportedly pushing for more NIL money from the school, the former five-star recruit ended up holding out and subsequently departing the Vols’ program for UCLA — something Davis labeled as “ham-handed” and executed as “poorly” as possible on Iamaleava’s side.

“There are a lot of different ways to look at this, and the first way that I look at it is this — if you’ve listened to this podcast or heard me on ‘GameDay’ for years, you know that I’m all for players getting paid,” Davis began. “… You need to have a landing spot before you go in and start demanding extra money. And the other thing is that they came off as extraordinarily ungrateful in all of this, which is also a damage to your reputation.”

“Nico Iamaleava, for those of you who might not know, was first approached when he was still in high school, and Tennessee came with an NIL deal,” Davis recalled. “… And he collected some money up front. He collected some money in the year that he did not play, and then had moments last season, but he didn’t have a great season by any stretch of the imagination, although he was certainly good, and he had some big moments.”

“He was a guy who was wildly talented, still growing, and you felt as if [there was] unlimited potential if he stayed on course,” the veteran CFB voice continued. “Yet, it has become apparent that there were other factors at play, and Nico either was not interested or did not quite have the internal strength to stand up to his circle and say, ‘This is not the way we’re going to do business.'”

“He’ll play. He’s talented enough to play great, and I’m sure that he can come back from this. There’s no doubt about it,” Davis concluded. “But it is certainly a significant bump in the road.”

There was definitely a lot that rubbed people the wrong way about how Iamaleava and his team went about things. However, his side maintains that the dispute wasn’t about the money when it comes to the QB‘s new chapter.

Related: Ohio State Football Player Transferring After Spring Game