Steve Spurrier weighs in on the Tennessee — Nico Iamaleava split
You can put former Florida Gators head coach Steve Spurrier in the camp of those who think Josh Heupel and the Tennessee Vols did the right thing by parting ways with QB Nico Iamaleava amid the two sides' NIL dispute. Spurrier joined former Florida beat writer Pat Dooley on his weekly podcast to discuss the […]
You can put former Florida Gators head coach Steve Spurrier in the camp of those who think Josh Heupel and the Tennessee Vols did the right thing by parting ways with QB Nico Iamaleava amid the two sides' NIL dispute.
Spurrier joined former Florida beat writer Pat Dooley on his weekly podcast to discuss the Gators' spring game, and – just as with many schools around the country – the topic of NIL and what happened last week in Knoxville came up.
Spurrier didn't hesitate to give UT praise for their actions.
"Tennessee, I think they did the right thing," Spurrier said. "They said 'hey, we had a deal,' four years I think they had with him. And now he wanted to up it, and they said no, we're not going to do that. They're looking for a quarterback, Tennessee, they've already admitted it.
"So many schools are. Basketball, coaches are the same way, and it's just open season on everybody. Everybody's a free agent every year in all sports in college. You'd think they would somehow get together. Let's have some rules here, and go from there, but they haven't yet. So we're gonna in this until someone changes the rules. I don't know who's gonna do it."
Indeed, absent a systematic overhaul, Iamaleava's demands and departures aren't going to be the last instance of players seeking to demand more of their programs after reaching terms on a supposed four-year deal. Until binding contracts are in place with rights, responsibilities, and consequences, this is going to continue to be an issue.
The other possibility for change is if enough coaches and schools refuse to take on players who leave for more money. Miami's Mario Cristobal made a strong statement about the Nico situation, saying that "if they wanna play holdout, they might as well play get out." Deion Sanders also appeared to have no interest in Iamaleava with a brief social media post.
It's going to either take the NCAA, schools, conferences, and/or the government stepping up and creating a framework that better creates a functional and fair system seem in professional sports. Or the schools will have to police themselves and avoid rewarding players like this from getting what they want to avoid others being incentivized to demand more.
In any event, the former Gator at least has Tennessee's back for a rare change with this situation.
Josh Heupel identifies two players by name as potential new leaders of the Tennessee Vols in the wake of Nico Iamaleava’s departure
The Vols’ head coach sees a pair of starters as ready to step up
