Locked On ACC - Daily College Football & Basketball Podcast - MELTDOWN: Nico Iamaleava's Contract HOLDOUT Rocks College Football | ACC Domino Effect?

Starting point is 00:00:00 There is an absolute nightmare happening in Tennessee right now when you're starting quarterback is holding out. NFL style holding out for a bigger NIL deal. And folks, I know that's the SEC, but if you don't think something like this can happen in the ACC, you're being completely naive. You are locked on ACC, your daily podcast on the Atlantic Coast Conference. part of the Locked-on Podcast Network, your team every day. Shout out to the everydayers and thank you so much for making Locked-on ACC, your first listen and your first watch today. We're available free wherever you get your podcast.

Starting point is 00:00:46 We're free on YouTube. We're part of the Lockdown Podcast Network, your team every day. On this loaded episode, we will brace ourselves at each other for the chaos that's going to come in a few days when the transfer portal officially opens. and how equipped programs in the ACC are to thrive or not thrive in this new era. He is Kenton Gibbs from Locked on Wolfpack. I am Alex Dono from Locked on Caines. And to help us break down not only what's going on in Knoxville with Nico Iameleava,

Starting point is 00:01:21 oh, I struggled through that one, but how the rest of college football is going to be impacted by this. We've got the host of the portal with us, Brian Smith, host of the. the portal podcast and Locked on Seminoles. So, all right. So Brian, starting quarterback of the Tennessee volunteers, who, by the way, when he was coming out of high school, famously signed an unprecedented NIL deal at that time. They called him $8 million NICO, signed an $8 million over three-year NIL deal. Allegedly, he sees some of the big $4 million per year deals that are being signed by some other

Starting point is 00:01:57 quarterbacks, including Carson Beck of Miami reportedly. And he wants a bigger deal at Tennessee. The Vols Collective does not want to give him a new deal and tear up the old one at this time for understandable reasons. It's been reported on for the last couple of days. Reports were denied by Nico's own father. But then on Friday, Nico reportedly skipped practice in Tennessee because he's holding out. So first of all, Brian, do I have the facts right on the situation?

Starting point is 00:02:27 From what little, I'm literally waiting on a text for more details from my Tennessee guy here. This has been trending in a bad direction since December. That's what I was told. What exactly was said then and all that? I'm not sure I want to know because it's just going to make me angry on a Friday night. I don't want to run my own weekend. I am old school. I believe when you sign a contract, therefore you should honor.

Starting point is 00:02:51 Secondarily, I know it would be a bad look and it's touchy, but Tennessee can hold him in contempt. depending on how that contract would like this could go ugly in a lot of ways because if Tennessee wanted to they could do that but then again you screw yourself with future recruits and Tennessee's any lose lose as they say there's no good out of this I go ahead Ken I know you feel the same so go ahead I hate to be that guy I hate to be that guy but allegedly there is another side of this that Tennessee could be negotiating preemptively ahead of revenue sharing and those negotiations aren't going well. That's the

Starting point is 00:03:30 other side of it that's being reported from pro-Nico can't. So I don't want to chastise the young man too bad, but I will tell you, Brian, you hit the nail on the head with that last statement. This is a lose, lose. Nobody wins. Nico loses. The university loses.

Starting point is 00:03:46 The players that they hold lose out for this. And so do the universities because this is a clear sign. We need guardrails for these types of things. If we're going to sign these contracts, and all this, we knew holdouts were inevitable. That's part of what happens with labor when it's like, hey, I think I've outperformed my contract, which, by the way, if Nico is the highest paid quarterback in college football,

Starting point is 00:04:08 I'd be, you know, has he outperformed that? Some would argue no. So most would argue no, actually. So I would look at this and I would say, man, this is not only a harborderer of bad things for Tennessee, but again, high school players and all those big checks, that Bryce Underwood-style deal, it may be Van Moosa thing of the past for universities. It may be a thing where players are no longer wanting to sign that potential two-year deal or whatever, because this is unheard of. Go ahead, Donna. Well, I was just going to say, I'm glad,

Starting point is 00:04:43 Kenton brought up the NICO side of it, because I don't want to sit here and just sound as if I'm slamming the young man, and I'm sure eventually we'll find out what's true, or at least what's more true. But, you know, Brian, isn't this, wasn't this the worst nightmare of every college football fan when people started to kind of run through like the worst case scenarios in your head? And listen, I just want to say for the record for the thousandth time, I am fully in support of players getting paid for their name image and likeness. I wanted this to happen for so many years before it finally happened a few years ago. But all the naysayers out there were like, no, keep it completely amateur. This is ridiculous. This is terrible. This was a

Starting point is 00:05:26 a lot of people's worst case scenario to have kind of an NFL style contract holdout for college players. And there's still going to be people who refer to them as student athletes, which is such a joke because we move so far from that at this point. But like, isn't this scenario the worst nightmare that your starting quarterback could potentially hold your team hostage? Could you think of one worse? Like, honestly, you two follow football as close as I do, is quarterback's the most important position. He's the highest paid player on your roster. one of the highest paid players, if not the highest, in college football. But as Kenton hinted to, he didn't perform up to his contract yet.

Starting point is 00:06:05 Here, Ken, let me throw something at you. I just looked up on pro football focus. You know what his rating was under duress last year? 45.2. Oh. Yeah. He had a 37% completion rate or something like that. I could pull up exactly, but it's, it's, you get the hint here.

Starting point is 00:06:26 Yeah. Yeah, yeah. And he's renegotiating? Did you all watch the Ohio State game? And that's the confusing part about this because regardless of which side or kicked off the negotiations or which side is being more unwilling to give. Again, this is just a nightmare for everybody. And when you talk about, hey, your quarterback's the most important,

Starting point is 00:06:52 he gets paid the most all those types of things. We also have to consider an outlier will always be used to justify that which people already believe. Let's look at NIL overwhelmingly. Overwhelmingly, we have seen more schools failing their parts than the players. Overwhelmingly, we have seen multiple times. I don't talk about situations I don't have inside information or I don't know and trust the family. Michael Allen, former NC State running back, went out to UNLV. The UNLV quarterback said he didn't give what he was supposed to get paid.

Starting point is 00:07:24 I know the Allen family. I'm not going to say I'm an insider with them and me and them have dinner and all that all the time. I know them well enough to know. If he left a second time, there was something in the water there that wasn't exactly right. But this is the story that's going to be the headline rapper because you're the big money guy. Nobody, with all the respect to Mr. Allen and his family, nobody is writing headlines about this outside of Las Vegas times and whatnot.

Starting point is 00:07:51 This Nico thing is going to be on first take. It's going to be on Fox Sports. It's going to be every single place. So this will be the poster child when there are some serious restrictions slapped on this thing. And the timing of it couldn't be worse for athletes with the house thing happening. And there being proposals to say, oh, the max you can get paid to $600 for NIA bill. What worst timing could there be when you think about the national championship being a $20 million team? And players had all the momentum in this team.

Starting point is 00:08:21 And then this happens. Hate it for them. I don't know what else to say there besides the fact that, like, if you're not going to pay him, I'll go ahead and make the first point about this is a team sport. And I look at it from a fan side of this. Right now, barring something completely unforeseen, I see Tennessee's chances of making a run at the college football national title this next season. Zero. Wow. Here's the problem.

Starting point is 00:08:48 Even if Nico signs tomorrow and they figure it out, you've already alienated members of that locker room, the coaching staff, the boosters, the collective. And I can tell you personally, because I got friends at Rood Forum and I got people from that, they will not forgive. Nope. It is not going to end well for him all around with Tennessee. And that's probably in some capacity going to be negative for the win-lossed

Starting point is 00:09:18 common. Prove me wrong. And I've met Nico, been around him. He's a lot of fun to be around, all that. And I don't know if he's the one. driving it or for somebody in his face. I have no idea. But it's going to be him because he's the one throwing the pill.

Starting point is 00:09:32 He, I mean, he's got a cannon. Holy cow, does he have an arm? But he's the one in the crosshairs. And if especially, I don't know who Tennessee plays to say game three, four, or somewhere they play somebody pretty. They play Syracuse to open up. They're going to lose Syracuse.

Starting point is 00:09:47 After that, though, if they lose a game, like, they're an underdog. It's one thing. But if they choke in a game, like he's just going to get a, he's going to take down a social media. Like it's going to be there. There's nothing short of a national championship that could rectify. Let's be very honest. Even if he goes to the playoff and does the same thing he did in the playoff last year. People are going to, that's what I'm saying, you know, tearing down the tearing down the banners at old Rocky Top to say, hey, what the hell

Starting point is 00:10:15 is going on? You sat out and you charge us more. This is what you do? But I'm very confused about this from, again, I give Nico the grace of, I don't have all the information. So I'm not going to paint the 100% picture one way or the other. I don't know. But what I do know is this. If it is initiated from Nico side, this is one of the most foolish things I've ever seen because normally you have leverage. You have something to say, give me what I want or. What's the or here? Or I don't play. You lose in that situation too. You don't have enough good film to say, you know what? I can not play the rest of the season and I'll still be a top 10-fif. when one of the Bosa brothers hurt his stomach and sat out for the rest of the year,

Starting point is 00:10:58 he had enough film to say, you know what? Do what you want. I'm good. I'm going to the NFL. They're going to make me a top pick regardless. Nico does not, he's not in that situation. So what's your leverage to say, hey, I'm going to go elsewhere. Well, what do you think they're going to pay you?

Starting point is 00:11:17 You think they're going to pay you more? At this point in the ballgame, at this point in the portal, who would pay more? So that's why it's part of me that has to believe there's more I played than Nico won more money because it just it doesn't make sense. And granted, humans are illogical. Okay. So it could be that. It could be just a fool running a fool's error, but I would hope better for him. Well, coming up next, how many programs within the ACC have the financial firepower and also like the means of confidence to avoid a situation like this?

Starting point is 00:11:51 You want to keep it locked right here, my friends. We're only getting started on this brand new episode of Locked on ACC. This is a message from our sponsor, Intuit TurboTax. Taxes was waiting and worrying and wondering if you're going to get any money back. And then waiting, wondering, and worrying some more. Now, Taxes is matching with a TurboTax expert who can do your taxes as soon as today. An expert who gives your taxes their undivided attention as they work on your return, while you get real-time updates on their progress so you can

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Starting point is 00:13:07 It's portal season, guys, and that means you go crazy. Brian goes crazy. You listen to his episodes, and we all have a great time together. So, all right, Brian, again, I mentioned this. If this can happen in the SEC, it can happen in the ACC. Now, you outlined Tennessee's kind of been a no-win position here. But, you know, if they do want to keep their starting quarterback happy, they probably have the financial means to do so. I mean, how many programs do you think in the ACC do? I mean, I did see Miami allegedly give a $4 million NIL deal to Carson Beck.

Starting point is 00:13:43 So I guess they would be in that situation. I would assume Clemson and Florida State have pretty deep pockets. But, I mean, how many schools in this conference can compete with that sort of financial firepower? Well, I know that Kenton's least favorite school is the new NIL power in the ACC, allegedly, and I'll let Kenton speak on that because I'm not tied in to the triangle there in the middle of that state, but there's no way you were going to get Bill Belichick to come without it because he's not going to go out and grind on the roof. He's not going to do that. So that's one we've got to come back to Louisville is the sleeping giant of the ACC because they got a lot of money. And they've thrown it around to a certain degree because they can't get the high school kids they want, but their portal classes are pretty darn good. The other thing that you mentioned, Clemson and Florida State,

Starting point is 00:14:29 it's not what you have, it's what you're willing to spend or able to now. You got to remember, Florida State, they got the renovations going on. There's no nice way to say this. The guy that is currently the head coach might know what about would not be

Starting point is 00:14:40 if his contract wouldn't still $50 million plus if they owed him if they had fired him out of last year. They're worried about having, if he stinks up again this next year, that tie, like NIL is tied into coaching contracts or they want to say it or not.

Starting point is 00:14:53 As Florida, because the money they were going to use on Napier ended up. going into recruiting NIL they go back and forth so but if he fails again this year it'll go back on the new coach side everybody has to figure it out for themselves individually and it could change year to year but right now i don't think for the state has the money they want and i really don't think that clemson wants to spend it because it's a culture thing they're just using you give them a little credit they went got a couple of kids that's fine but they still would rather build in-house

Starting point is 00:15:21 that's their decision but clemson that school's got cash if they ever changed head coach which is, I bet you Clemson would be one of the more dominant NIL teams. Dono is correct. I am telling you all right now, Clemson would not end up in this type of situation because of the way that DAPO carries himself and the way that he is about NIL and all that. You tell him, hey, I'm going to sit out.

Starting point is 00:15:43 No, you won't. You'll jump in the portal. Don't worry. Brian Smith will be talking about it's about 3 p.m. tomorrow. Don't worry, brother. Go on. Go on. Go where you got to go.

Starting point is 00:15:53 I'm ready. But in all seriousness, this. If we're saying what school has enough money to avoid this, I think we're looking at this from the wrong perspective. There is no amount of money that protects you and insulates you from this type of moment. Because if this were to happen, let's just say, Crystal Ball recruits a quarterback, the baddest thing coming out of the state of Miami, right? Yes, I know Miami's the city, but y'all know what I mean when I reference the state of Miami is what's Nellenberger. The real ones know. The real ones know what you meant.

Starting point is 00:16:20 So let's say, he says, I got the baddest thing. This man, he could throw the ball a country. from raleigh runs a 419 i'm telling you can shake up anybody out they shoot that quarterback gets paid for me in a year that quarterback then says wait a minute some bozo at ls u's getting six me in a year and he can't sling it like i sling it then what do you do if that young man says hey i need more money what what do you do i tell me take a hike and that's the thing right you tell me take a hike but that kid may actually be able to command more from elsewhere so so what do you do like i said it's a lose And mind you, we're not even talking about the fact that that young man was your starter all throughout the off seat. That young man, at this point in time, Nico and company have gotten in hundreds, at minimum, hundreds, possibly thousands of reps of let me see what your quickout looks like.

Starting point is 00:17:11 Let me see what your bang gate looks like. Let me see what your skinny post looks like. Let me get in what that looks like. And now you're saying, oh, with four months left before the season starts, you either pay me more or get a new quarterback. What's you going to do? what you're going to do? So I don't think that this is necessarily if you have enough money, you will avoid this.

Starting point is 00:17:29 I think this is much more of a if you have a certain type of culture. And even with that, with all due respect to Clemson and DaBorn company, you have the right culture to keep kids for now. I don't think that that's a perma situation where it's like, hey, guys will never look around and say, well, wait a damn minute.

Starting point is 00:17:46 The boys in Georgia Tech all got Benzance. Why am I sitting up here pushing around this old beater? I'm just saying, And I think there's a situation that if this becomes a ubiquitous type of deal, nobody's going to be safe regardless of how much money you got in the callers. I don't disagree with that at all. And unfortunately, he brought up a really good point. It's specific to quarterback.

Starting point is 00:18:07 It's the reps. If Nico had went all in on this and publicly so, in January, you got a chance to go through Springball with a different quarterback. They're stock. Yeah, that's right. Quick, name the quarterback that is the number two at Tennessee. Even locked on balls may not know. That's what I'm saying.

Starting point is 00:18:29 I don't know. Touchet. But the point is still the same. A lot of Tennessee people probably don't know. And he hasn't got enough wraps. They're going to fall off a cliff if he doesn't play next year. And he's not focused on being a vault. I mean, Kitten's been in a locker room, getting ready to go out to go to work.

Starting point is 00:18:46 You know what it's like if the guy next to you's not. If he ain't dialed in, you're getting your head kicked in too, because that lineman's coming over to you right after he knocks him down. Like, it's a spiral effect. And you can read the body language of a quarterback. So in terms of the ACC teams, it's going to happen to somebody eventually. Now, I don't know if it's going to be somebody, A, as talented as Nico and B, like his contract. Like, this is the perfect storm.

Starting point is 00:19:10 And for it to be the first one we know about, like, the chances of this scarcity were insanely low. But here we are. Well, and yeah, and here's what we have to talk about because, yeah, they don't resolve. this in Knoxville in the next few days, Nico might hit the transfer portal. Transfer portal is going to be open, and I've already seen players declaring their intentions to enter the portal. So I want to pick Brian Smith's brain on what the next two and a half weeks are going to be like.

Starting point is 00:19:38 You want to keep it locked right here, my friends. We're not done yet on Locked on ACC. And after you listen to Locked on ACC, make sure you also check out Kenton and my other shows. I host Locked on Cains talking everything, Miami. Miami's got their spring game coming up on Saturday. We'll have a lot of content about that in recruiting. Kent and Gibbs hosts Lockdown, Wolfpack.

Starting point is 00:20:03 He and Grayson Boone do a fantastic job. You know, they hired Will Wade, which I think was a great move. It's their new basketball coach heading into another football season, all the good stuff that comes with that. All right. So, Brian, you know, the portal opens, I think, on the, on the fit. Is it open on tax day? Does it open, like, as if there wasn't enough chaos on April 15th,

Starting point is 00:20:21 that that's also when the transfer portal opens. But 16th, April 16th, maybe. I might have been thinking. of tax day. So 16. So a day after, you know, everyone finishes their taxes, shout out to TurboTax and the great folks there. We'll be covering the craziness of the portal on the 16th. There's already players around the country declaring their intentions to enter that portal. How crazy is this going to be, Brian? And do you think we're going to actually see starters at big time positions looking for new spots? I want to start with your second part because that's the crazy

Starting point is 00:20:58 of it. In the spring window, there won't be as many guys as a general rule that are elite. However, Kenton, have you ever heard of the word tampering? Does that ring a bell to you, sir? You know what that means? No, no, I'm not familiar with the act of messing with or talking to players illegally. I don't know anything about that. I have no clue. Anyway, we all know that there are a handful of schools that think they got a shot to either a make it to a bowl game, B at least make it to the playoff or C make a run at the title. Any of those three, if you're missing, especially at DND, D tackle, quarterback, corner, or maybe like a big play receiver, those guys have no reason to jump in because

Starting point is 00:21:42 as Ohio State showed last year in Michigan the year before, the elite programs, they pony up. They pony up. So if you're going to get somebody in, it's not just tampering. You got to throw down. And let me give you an example of that. Xavier Hill has already announced he's going to go into port. Now that may, that name may not mean nothing to you, but if you've started at guard, both left and right tackle, been a two-time all-conference player, a 64-3-20,

Starting point is 00:22:08 and your PFF grades are elite. You're over 80 and everything. Yep, you're going to get some offers. He played at Memphis, but he also started his career at LSU. Offensive tackles, they're not in the portal. He's a kid that's from the greater Memphis. just say, why not just write it out and go in there? He's going to get drafted.

Starting point is 00:22:27 Somebody's already said, hey, bro, just so, you know, guaranteed. So the craziness is not whether guys are going to get in. It's why. Starters, there's no reason to leave. So if an elite player, and you're seeing this college basketball right now, if an elite player at school X, especially if it's P4, hops in the portal, he got the phone call. He probably got 50, but he probably got one that changed his mind on the month.

Starting point is 00:22:52 And I'm going to, I'm going to guarantee you the following habits. Mark it down. Somebody's going to call out school X, Y, or Z. There are about four or five schools that everybody dislikes because of their portal tampering. A handful of them are going to get called out by coaches at other schools after this spring. And there's going to be a lot of people call for the spring window to get eliminated because of it. Because a lot of guys are worried about losing their jobs, too. That's the other little part.

Starting point is 00:23:17 If they don't win and trying to steal somebody's players, it happens right after spring ball, once you know where your debt chart is and you might be short. Well, that's on you. You get a reprieve every year and you just go steal somebody's player because you got money. It's going to be an ugly back and forth. That'll be the new thing within the next two months. And you know, the funny thing about that is I had specifically talked about

Starting point is 00:23:39 NC State needed more pass-resduce off the edge on Locked and Willpack multiple times. And going into the Spring Portal, guess what just happened? Two new commits from group of five schools, both edge rushers. So, I mean, you know, you're right, Brian. This is this is the game that's being played right now. This is how that goes. NC stays obviously a step up from G5.

Starting point is 00:24:02 If you're talking lower P4, what's a step up from that? If you're a high G5, like Xavier Hill is, you know, what's a step up from that? You get that call. And at the end of the day, this is why I'm saying we need more guardrails and we need official established. Hey, sign here and you do two years. They sign here, you know, you do two years with a potential renewal, whatever the case may be, so that we can again, not even for, oh, we need players to stay at place X, Y, and Z, but more so because there has to be some type of guarantee continuity. You know, there was something I saw this offseason, a phenomenon that was brand new to me. And Brian, maybe you've seen this as well.

Starting point is 00:24:43 There were multiple players that committed to going back to their schools that made their post saying, hey, I'm back on with the, one Husky NIL deal and then three weeks later they were in the portal and it was like well what was that last announcement about what's going on here so you know it's something that again I'm expecting guys stop in the portal but when you talk about elite high level guys dono the leverage for a lot of them just didn't dare now a guy like here the leverage absolutely is there you're in a G5 school Memphis ain't touching some of these other schools buses but all due respect they're just not okay cool but if you're a starter at a LSU, if you're a starter out of Florida State and you know you're going to get paid like a starter at Florida State at Miami, what's the incentive to then say, well, let me go ahead and step out because again, the grass ain't always greener.

Starting point is 00:25:37 Yeah, there's no chance. A guy like, let's say one of the guys like Maui Noah, a guy at Miami. If he went in the portal, he'd get all kinds of money. He's getting paid well there anyway. He's not going to enter the portal just because. Guys like that are they, you have to entice them. And I know if he's happy at Miami anyway, I'm not saying him, but just as an example, he's going to be a high draft pick. Zero chance that guy's getting the portal without being poached. Zero. Right. So I'm telling you, there's going to be some callouts coming. It's going to come. And it's going to be, it'll be great for us.

Starting point is 00:26:11 I'm here for it. Oh, yeah. I have a short list. I'll discuss that after. Can you give us, can he give us a few from the short list? There's a guy on this show that will probably find that very interesting. I'll just leave it a bit. Hey, all I'm saying is somebody's fool on this show has been accused already.

Starting point is 00:26:36 How dare you talk about Dave Doran like that? The entire state of Wisconsin got people, one of us. And it ain't made. The entire state of Wisconsin. All right, that'll do it. for our show. For real, though, that will do it for the show. I appreciate Brian Smith for taking the time,

Starting point is 00:27:01 host of the portal podcast in Lockdown Seminoles. We didn't even talk any Florida State today. We'll have you back on again, Brian, to talk of it. They don't have a spring game, so what is there to talk about Florida State anyway? Kent and Gibbs from Locked on Wolfpack. I am Alex Dono from Locked on Cain. Hope everyone has an awesome weekend.

Starting point is 00:27:18 Make sure you smash that like button, subscribe and let's all apologize to d'aith doran for accusing him of doing terrible terrible things could never be i'll give him a call i could never be mario christabal we'll talk to you guys next time on another episode of locked on acc part of the awesome lockdown podcast network your team every day

Locked On ACC - Daily College Football & Basketball Podcast - MELTDOWN: Nico Iamaleava's Contract HOLDOUT Rocks College Football | ACC Domino Effect?

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