"Nico Iamaleava almost held out of playoff games": Josh Pate calls out NIL advocates after latest Tennessee controversy

The NIL is slowly taking over college athletics like never before. The recent Nico Iamaleava situation has been a prime example of the changing dynamics of football programs in the country. As the legendary quarterback Tom Brady once said, colleges don't have programs anymore but teams where modern players are playing just for individual success and not for the school.

Reacting to this controversy in Tennessee, Josh Pate gave a harsh reality check to the NIL advocates who upvoted this model and promoted it on all fronts on his "Josh Pate's College Football Show."

Pate mentioned that the situation at Knoxville couldn't get any worse. Especially Iamaleava - who triggered the controversy in a similar way in Dec. 2024 a day before the transfer portal closed - asked for more NIL money. He was set to earn as much as $2.4 million but demanded $4 million heading into 2025.

“Just a complete embarrassment on all fronts of the situation. It's been brewing for a long time, not necessarily specific to Tennessee, but like this kind of garbage has been coming for a long time,” Pate said on his show on Sunday night. [Timestamp - 0:11]

“The first thing I want you to notice as we dive into this is a lot of the people who have been pushing for the changes that are happening in the sport, they would call them progress. I would call them just changes. A lot of the stuff they told you you didn't have to worry about. A lot of the stuff they told you that wouldn't happen. It's funny how it keeps happening."

"These are the same people who would tell you players would never opt out of playoff games. You know, if we had more playoff games and less meaningless bowl games, then players won't opt out of playoff games. You know, that same crowd fails to mention that this past December, cats like Nico, I almost held out of playoff games because they were trying to renegotiate contracts in the middle of a playoff run,” he added.

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Nico Iamaleava will be a hot prospect in the transfer portal

The next step for the former Tennessee QB would be entering the transfer portal. The spring window officially opens on Wednesday and runs through Friday (Apr. 25) for 10 days. This period will allow players to enroll and find a new team for the 2025 season.

Nico Iamaleava will undoubtedly be atop the boards since he was a five-star athlete out of high school and led Tennessee to a college football playoff game in the 2024 season.

In 2024, the quarterback racked up 2,616 yards, scored 19 touchdowns and threw five interceptions. Several loaded programs could afford to pay Iamaleava; however, his commitment to the schools would remain a concern since the ongoing drama has already tainted his image in league circles.