Tennessee catches a stray from the game show 'Jeopardy!' over split with Nico Iamaleava

The Tennessee Volunteers and their former quarterback Nico Iamaleava will be forever intertwined together. Iamaleava was one of the first big name quarterbacks to sign a massive deal in the new NIL era. The school and the state of Tennessee went to bat against the NCAA in court over him and won.

But ultimately, as even every slightly casual college football fan knows at this point, the Tennessee football program and Iamaleava parted ways in a very public fashion the weekend of the Orange and White game in 2025. Iamaleava no showed at the team's practice the Friday before the game, and that was the last straw for Josh Heupel.

That split was the subject of a somewhat cheeky question — or I guess I should say answer, given the show's format — on the popular game show "Jeopardy!" on Monday night.

The Tennessee — Nico Iamaleava split was a question/answer on 'Jeopardy!'

The answer was: "In 2025, star quarterback Nico Iamaleava said I am a-leav-ing this school's Volunteers for UCLA".

Contestant Erin correctly answered, "what is Tennessee?"

Despite the humorous undertone of the question, the situation ultimately turned out to be something Vol fans can look back and laugh at.

The Vols ended up basically pulling off a QB trade with UCLA and landed Joey Aguilar as a result. Aguilar would go on to lead the SEC in passing yards per game and helped reignite a Tennessee deep passing attack that had been relatively dormant since a breakout 2022 season with Hendon Hooker at the helm.

Conversely, Iamaleava started all 12 games for UCLA, with the Bruins finishing with a 3-9 record.