The last time there was this much buzz around the opening of a portal, Dr. Strange was pulling out superheroes from them. Except this one isn’t about the Avengers assembling, it’s about them being dismembered. The college football transfer portal has opened today, i.e., April 16th. Naturally, there’s plenty of movement right at the outset. Simmering plotlines have now boiled over. There are plenty of players worth keeping an eye on. But none more so than the sport’s no.1 villain as of today, Nico Iamaleava. Expectantly, Nico has hit the portal after being ousted by Tennessee under sensational circumstances. However, there’s yet an extra layer to peel in this ordeal. His landing spot is actually much more solidified than you’d think. It’s not a mystery where Nico will play his football next year, at least to him.

Here’s a rundown in case you aren’t up to speed with what went down in Knoxville over this past week. Tennessee QB1 Nico Iamaleava, essentially, got shown the real extent of power in the Power T. 3. He’s very abruptly out the door. Rocky Top has well and truly been rocked, and the reasons are quite unprecedented. The Vols initially lured Iamaleava in 2023 by making him one of the first big beneficiaries of the NIL era. In exchange for his services, he signed a deal that reportedly raked in north of $2 million a season. At the time, this was the richest NIL deal across the sport. But a rising tide lifts all boats. The market has since changed. So Iamaleava and his camp sought more money from the school in a renegotiation ploy. But the approach wasn’t very good, and things didn’t transpire favorably. Or have they?

Looking for a bigger bag is standard practice across all walks of life. So are ultimatums and leverage plays to feel out the other end of the bargain. However, the concept of money, at least legally, is still fairly new in the CFB world. HC Josh Heupel and the Tennessee brass didn’t really appreciate Nico’s advances. After all, he was seeking close to double his current deal at $4m a year. What made this raise unwarranted wasn’t just the figure in a vacuum. It was the fact it didn’t correlate to his performances. Nico Iamaleava was good in 2024 and even led the Vols to the CFP. But he wasn’t THAT good. Paying him would’ve disrupted order and parity within the rest of the roster. Set an ugly precedent, not just for the program but for the sport as a collective. So the Vols cut the cord on things. Now, Nico’s looking for that bag elsewhere. He may just have found it.

CBS Sports’ Matt Zenitz reports Nico Iamaleava has entered the transfer portal with a “Do Not Contact” tag. For the uninitiated, this means schools have been asked not to get in touch with him and make him offers to be their new quarterback. It runs parallel to tampering in some aspects, but it is an option nonetheless. Alas, this means Nico already has a school lined up. Which implies he got what he was looking for, both in terms of fit and finances. Iamaleava approaching Tennessee with that proposal would’ve made sense only if he had a contingency plan in his back pocket in case they refused. It seems like that contingency plan is in motion now. Or, a school has decided to pounce on the opportunity to get arguably a top-10 QB in the country while the stocks are down.

Since the news about Tennessee and Nico Iamaleava diverging their separate ways broke, the prevailing sentiment in the media and among the masses has been it was a massive mistake. This did make sense. The optics of it all were ugly. Nico’s camp, led by his father, didn’t handle business in a very shrewd or subtle manner. It should’ve been sorted, whether an agreement was reached or not, in private. This revelation becoming public really hurt his image and people’s perception of him as an individual. Nico’s character has come under question, which is why teams were seemingly disinterested in taking damaged goods. But it would appear he’s found a home after all. That “Do Not Contact” tag is not reciprocal to a bidding war between multiple schools. So it really does suggest he’s happy with the outcome and hasn’t sabotaged his career. Which begs the question: What is the outcome? His father did let us know.

Nico Iamaleava’s father reveals how much he’s been offered by his next school

Nico Iamaleava is a former 5-star recruit who has shown more than competent play in the SEC. Even if there’s a dark cloud over the situation, he’s still an attractive commodity. But the reporting around his next landing spot has been mixed. There are certain possibilities we can eliminate. The SEC bylaws state players who transfer through the spring portal aren’t eligible to play for another in-conference team in the upcoming season. So Nico will have to sit for a year if he moves to an SEC school, eliminating that as an option. There was initial reporting around Tulane and UNC, but that’s been nipped in the bud. That said, there’s bubbling interest from the Big 10.

Iamaleava is a California native. As such, both USC and UCLA have been tipped as suitors. It does make sense in some parts. Both teams could do with an improvement at the quarterback position. USC, with QB whisperer Lincoln Riley at the helm, is an especially intriguing option. Importantly, they have the NIL arsenal to match Nico’s alleged asking price of $4m. His dad, Nick Iamaleava, said they’d been offered from an anonymous school. Blue Bloods Bias revealed some leaked DMs with Nick. One of the messages read, “The offers we have received are better than what Nico was getting [at Tennessee] by a lot!… Nico has offers over $4,000,000.” If this isn’t a smokescreen and is indeed true, very few schools apart from USC can really afford to be in the mix.

There remain a lot of moving pieces and hidden details. But it’s worth reinforcing just how telling that “Do not contact” tag is. Could Nico Iamaleava really be Coach Riley’s next QB project? If he really does wind up with someone who’s developed multiple Heisman winners and NFL All-Pros while also making a sweet $4 million, Nico really may have won this divorce. However, things that began so convoluted hardly ever end this straightforwardly.