On July 1, 2021, after much turmoil, the NCAA approved a Name, Image, and Likeness policy enabling college athletes to profit off of themselves. In the decades leading up to the ruling, profiting off of oneself was an honor reserved for professional athletes.
With the ever-increasing influential presence of athletes on social media platforms and the addition of the obscene profits colleges were turning off their athletes’ success, NIL was a necessary step.
In its early years of application, NIL quickly transformed from a policy initially meant as a way for players to earn money through commercials and sponsorships to a controlling collegiate conglomerate.
Power Four schools created NIL collectives — pools of money funded predominantly by alumni and fanatic supporters — to lure athletes to their programs.
Last season, the Florida men’s basketball team won the National Championship. Their two leading scorers, Walter Clayton Jr. and Alijah Martin, were brought over from smaller, non-Power Four programs with large NIL deals from Florida’s NIL collective.
NIL is here to stay. Universities around the country lined up to create their own collectives, aiming to use money, rather than education, as the new pitch to lure athletes.
This past summer, UCLA football took a massive swing when they paid former Tennessee quarterback Nico Iamaleava $1.2 million to take his talents to Westwood.
However, UCLA has opened to an 0–3 start. This past Sunday, Head Coach Deshaun Foster was fired following a 35–10 beatdown to New Mexico. The Bruins paid the Lobos $1.2 million to play the game, and New Mexico came away with their first win over a power conference opponent in 17 years.
UCLA swung big this summer, and early returns are not paying off their investment. UCLA’s starting quarterback last season, Joey Aguilar, just shredded Georgia’s defense last week as the starting quarterback for Tennessee, while the Bruins were overwhelmed by New Mexico. Aguilar joining the Volunteers and Iamaleava the Bruins constitutes what was essentially the first college football trade.
Over-aggressiveness in NIL can be costly, and Iamaleava is definitely suffering the consequences of a tumultuous decision. While there were family reasons that explain his transfer to UCLA — the campus is about half an hour from Iamaleava’s alma mater, Warren High School — the search for a more lucrative deal concluded with a significant downgrade. UCLA does not have the talent nor the fanbase that Tennessee does, and the stadium atmosphere pales in comparison.
Iamaleava’s journey is a case study for why the transfer portal and NIL must be navigated carefully, both for athletes and schools.
