When I was younger, our family took trips up to Helen, Georgia. I can remember a few things, being the foodie that I am…an Irish novelty shop that sold Alanna’s Steak Sauce (this was prior to me understanding a proper steak doesn’t require “sauce”…sue me, I was young) and a little country store on the north end of town that sold Necco Wafers.

Not sure if you’ve ever had one, but let me let you in on the experience. Imagine you took a Rolaids, flattened it, dusted it with school-grade chalkboard residue, crushed mint and cloves into it, and then packaged about fifty of the things inside of a wax paper wrapping. Although it looks like a rainbow of flavors, it tastes like you ate a handful of blandness that was invented before some brave adventurer had discovered the concept of taste. These may have been palatable prior to the development of the fifth taste of “sweet” was added to the human race’s tongue.

It was an empty experience, in other words.

Speaking of empty experiences, Mr. Nico is finding that the grass is not only not greener, but might be the chalky, bland experience you get from a “wintergreen” Necco wafer.

So, if I’m following the order of events correctly, Iamalavea participated in 14 spring practices, opted out the Friday before the spring game, the team cut ties with him on said Friday, and it gave everyone the weekend to process what just happened plus another three days until the Spring Portal opened today.

What Nico didn’t take into consideration is the broad and insane footprint that Vol Nation leaves on Twix and other socials, and the resounding resentment has been “don’t let door hit you on your way out”, to sum. Initial suitors for Nico’s services were reported to be UNC, UCLA, and Tulane (!), but both UNC and Tulane have since reported that they don’t have the desire to pay that much scratch for a one-and-done guy.

Then there’s the optics…first, a guy who will bail on a team at the worst possible time, his performance in the CFP versus a quality defense left much to be desired and wondering about the team’s commitment to support someone of Nico’s mindset, and then the added bonus that the driver of this nonsense is Nico’s dad. Apparently, he’s gone full Amazon Prime mode and is looking for someone to be the one year cash cow for his son and gives all the vibes of that one dad at the baseball games that is talking about his 12 year old getting looks from pro and college scouts when the kid is hitting below the Mendoza line but is decked out in five figure outfits and equipment.

Now, we have what is running the opposite of the Portal/NIL era…instead of positioning oneself into a space to command more money, an athlete has essentially rendered himself unmarketable. This is perhaps the first major example that will no doubt become another talking point among the thousands already leveraged that the NIL era has gotten out of hand. I wouldn’t at all be surprised to see a fresh lawsuit come out, Iamalavea vs. Bobby Hill, where a family or an athlete sues an organization of lost perceived compensation potential because, to make things worse for Tennessee, they fired the cannon shot (thank you, Cackalacky) in this scenario of severing ties with an employee (let’s face it, that’s what football players have become) when the Iamalavea camp could posture that they were negotiating and Tennessee broke the contract without cause or affording the group to counter or contractually negotiate.

Who knows, but I’m sure there’s someone out there that will make some money off of this, though I am thinking it’s more unlikely it’ll happen on a playing field, but in the courts, instead.

I never thought there’d be a day where Jimmy Sexton’s antics in negotiating for coaches would look tame and responsible in comparison, but when you haven’t heard his name in a while, you know we’ve entered the wild wild west of compensation.

I’m sure someone will pick the kid up. After all, some coach somewhere just came out of spring practice thinking “we’re royally f*cked” and will throw a hail mary to do anything to right the ship. Come to think of it, Colorado has yet to hold its spring session, so I wouldn’t at all be surprised to see a Coach Amazon Prime delivery of the former Volunteer quarterback land rightly in Boulder, Colorado.

If he’s lucky, they’ll be retiring #8 at Folsom Field in 2026. If he’s not, he’ll be tossing the pigskin in Lafayette for a vastly reduced fee.

Either way, if this is the domino that starts to fall that kills or reins in NIL, I’m all for it.