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Nico Iamaleava Suffers $1 Million Setback After Tennessee’s NIL Drama

Originally posted on Athlon Sports | By Matt Wadleigh | Last updated Apr 16, 2025 11:52 AM ET

With the college football spring transfer portal window officially opened on Wednesday, all eyes turn to Tennessee quarterback Nico Iamaleava.

After reports of Iamaleava entering the portal surfaced over the weekend, the Volunteers signal-caller did enter with a "Do Not Contact" tag.

Iamaleava reportedly aimed for a $4 million NIL payday in the portal, although a number of big programs have now dropped out.

The latest program to drop out of the Iamaleava sweepstakes was Tulane, which joins a list that includes North Carolina, USC and Texas Tech.

Iamaleava's chances of getting a $4 million NIL deal have taken a major hit with the fizzled interest.

As such, his On3 NIL valuation has taken a hit.

On Monday, Iamaleava's NIL valuation was at $3.1 million. However, as of Tuesday, it plummeted to just $2.1 million and remained the same when the portal officially opened.

That's certainly not promising for Iamaleava's hopes of getting the desired NIL deal he was aiming for.

Furthermore, his options appear to be dwindling quickly as of Wednesday, and one major program that remains is UCLA, although Matt Zenitz reported there isn't "much traction."

"There doesn’t seem to be much traction at the moment with UCLA and Nico Iamaleava," Zenitz wrote. "Remains difficult to get a great read on what the true market is for him right now."

It's quite the turn of events for Iamaleava, who is a talented QB and was expected to be highly-desired in the portal, although programs might be hesitant to pay that much money, especially this late in the calendar year.

This article first appeared on Athlon Sports and was syndicated with permission.

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