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Today in college football news, it’s time to refresh on “Andor,” the Star Wars product for grownups, before season 2 drops next week.
Fallout: One way or the other, a consequential athlete
Will this past weekend’s holdout saga of now-former Tennessee QB Nico Iamaleava end up changing everything about college sports? I dunno. Maybe! I get why it felt like a massive turning point. We’ll get to that stuff.
First, I honestly find the story itself more fascinating than its potential ramifications. Mainly, never say Iamaleava (and his oft-involved father) isn’t a trailblazer:
- 2022: Not long into the NIL era, the five-star recruit signed an $8 million deal covering his anticipated Tennessee career. Unprecedented, and at the time, everyone marveled at paying that much money via a contract that couldn’t actually be binding. “There’s an element of trust there,” the lawyer who wrote the contract told The Athletic back then.
- 2024: The state of Tennessee (along with Virginia) sued the NCAA after news broke that the governing-ish body was investigating Iamaleava’s journey toward the Vols. The states won. The then-19-year-old could’ve retired right then as one of the most important college athletes ever.
- 2025: Months before UT’s recent holdout situation, Georgia QB Carson Beck landed a one-year Miami deal reportedly approaching $4 million, perhaps nearly doubling Iamaleava’s annual average. That’s despite Beck being injured and producing a 145.34 passer rating as a senior, matching Iamaleava’s as a redshirt freshman. I don’t know Iamaleava’s advisers, but I keep imagining those two numbers might’ve felt discordant. Regardless, after 72 hours of college sports’ highest-profile holdout attempt ever, the former NIL pioneer was gone.
One guy did all that? While also appearing in the College Football Playoff? Which untested NIL boundary will he next probe like a “Jurassic Park” raptor? Either way, now we wait to see how this weekend changes the world. Everything changes the world in some way, after all.
Maybe this captivating moment will end up being the decisive showdown that breaks college sports’ ultimate stalemate. Coming right after spring ball, the Iamaleava family’s move was so annoyingly timed, it found little support even among the most athlete-first factions of this relatively athlete-friendly era. Right now, it feels like Tennessee coach Josh Heupel’s refusal to play the holdout game swung the balance of power back toward schools.
Most importantly — because this is once again the main question, as always — will this be what finally pushes various groups of adults to stop kicking the can away from collective bargaining?
Still, because college sports will always strive toward the status quo, it might just have been a thrilling drama that clarified what you can’t do in the NIL era. It’s natural to wonder whether each new NIL thing is a trendsetter, a landmark, a conclusion. Maybe so, and there are arguably reasons it should be. But this might’ve just been a standalone example of one player’s camp having way too much dip on its chip.
What did we learn from this episode? Well, now we know that an average-performing QB (in games against teams with winning records, Iamaleava’s passer rating ranked 85th in FBS, 12th among qualifying freshmen) can’t pull off a poorly communicated holdout in mid-April, when he has little leverage because just about any other team that could conceivably pay $4 million is a team that already has a QB, as recent portal history demonstrates.
Kinda feel like we already knew all that, right? Especially since Tennessee knew it could potentially pass the sticks to QB Jake Merklinger, a former four-star who’s spent a redshirt year in Heupel’s offense?
It’s possible Iamaleava’s ostentatious counselors gave fellow athletes a perfect example of how not to negotiate — while rich guys in polo shirts just keep yearning to give unprecedented deals to five-star QBs.
Quick Snaps
🦅 College football joins the Current Pro Athlete As Assistant General Manager thing. All-Pro Raiders DE Maxx Crosby is now Eastern Michigan‘s Steph Curry.
🏈 Former LSU receiver Kyren Lacy was found dead late Saturday night, Texas police said. He was 24.
💰 Courted by Fox, “College GameDay” host Rece Davis “has agreed to a new seven-year deal for tens of millions of dollars” at ESPN.
🌀 The portal re-opens tomorrow, and a new name has entered: Cal RB Jaydn Ott, star of the #Calgorithm movement.
🌸 Spring ball:
⚡️ Kent State fired head coach Kenni Burns, finding he “violated university policies concerning purchasing card expenses,” among other unspecified ethics allegations. He has a history of financial troubles.
🧔🏻♂️ Christina Day, wife of Ryan Day, says the Ohio State coach has actually never dyed his beard. That emoji looks like him, though.
🏀 Still feels like a college sports link to me: Grace Raynor interviewed the guy who went viral for predicting the greatness of a sixth-grade Paige Bueckers, the WNBA Draft’s No. 1 pick last night.
⏰ The NFL Draft is next week. If last year’s draft got a re-do, would LSU’s Jayden Daniels go No. 1?
The Manager: Jordon Brand
In the 1880s, Alice Sumner Camp was college football’s most important assistant coach. The wife of Yale coach Walter Camp, she ran practices, hosted meetings and drew praise from players for her detailed feedback. That’s not exactly a historical comp for today’s news, but I’ve been shoehorning it into lots of conversations lately.
At Belichick’s North Carolina, the 72-year-old coach’s girlfriend — a 24-year-old named Jordon Hudson, who’s copied on some of Belichick’s UNC emails at his request — has taken an active role in shaping the program’s messaging around the head coach, as revealed in emails obtained by The Athletic. For instance, before UNC announced Belichick was hiring his 38-year-old son, Steve, as defensive coordinator:
“Hudson said the school shouldn’t use images of Steve and Bill Belichick together to prevent ‘visual prompts’ that could fuel accusations of nepotism. She also suggested that the Tar Heels avoid referring to Steve as ‘Bill’s son’ and instead highlight his own accomplishments.”
Makes sense, sure, but know what might make it even harder for Steve to beat the nepo allegations? Being defended by his dad’s girlfriend. Hudson also appears to have roles at various companies that manage Belichick’s branding, merch, podcasting and so forth, all in addition to recent viral footage of her interacting with staffers during practice. More in the story by Matt Baker here.
