No villain in the Nico Iamaleava saga, but everyone should be careful

In a move that came as a bit of a surprise, Tennessee quarterback Nico Iamaleava opted to enter the transfer portal this past weekend after helping the Volunteers reach the College Football Playoff last season.

The 20-year-old reportedly held out from spring practices while asking for $4 million in name, image and likeness (NIL) money prior to making the decision, which has seemingly left many football fans upset and frustrated.

If you remember, Iamaleava's commitment to Tennessee as a high school recruit also came with some NIL drama. He committed to the Vols after reportedly receiving an NIL package somewhere between $8 and $9 million for the duration of his time in Knoxville, which seemed outlandish at the time. Now, Iamaleava is asking for more, and I'm excited to talk about the issue. 

I don't think Iamaleava is the villain that everyone wants to make him out to be, and I do think that there are other factors at play beyond the extra NIL money. Iamaleava's move serves as the latest lightning rod of a much larger conversation about the era we're in with college football. A lot of people immediately went, "Well, this sucks, it's broken and ruined," but this is an example of some growing pains. 

Of course, that doesn't mean this doesn't hurt, or that it isn't unpleasant. It just means that you're going to have to go through some of this chaos to get to a different place. College football is going to have to go through some of these growing pains to get where it needs to go. That was the overarching thought I wanted to share about Iamaleava before looking at his decision to transfer through some more specific points.

The only thing that should be surprising about the Iamaleava situation is that it took this long to get