Name, Image and Likeness (NIL) is still dominating the college football landscape, and until some guardrails are put in place then that likely will not be changing. NIL being the focal point of the offseason is nothing new to college football fans, but a recent development with one of Georgia’s biggest competitors in the SEC is changing everything.
This development involves Tennessee star quarterback Nico Iamaleava, who is reportedly asking for more NIL money and is even sitting out of practice until he gets it. And according to multiple reports, Iamaleava is asking for upwards of $4 million per year.
How will this impact these teams?
Similarly to Iamaleava, Carson Beck also earned a massive payday when he made the decision to transfer to Miami (FL), with some reports saying he will receive $4.5 million.
The value of something (or in this case a quarterback) is what someone is willing to pay. So if Tennessee and Miami are willing to pay their quarterbacks this much money then that is how much they are worth. But it’s worth debating if this is the right decision from these teams or not.
As Austin points out in the above post, these players are using upwards of 25 percent of their team’s resources. No one is saying quarterbacks shouldn’t be the highest paid player on a team, but to take up this much of a program’s money seems counterproductive. That means the team has that much less money to construct the rest of their roster, which could lead to the team being a lot worse than they could have b
een.
Just look at the NFL, no quarterback makes 25 percent of the teams entire payroll.
How does this benefit Georgia?
So what it boils down to is if players want to make as much money as possible or if they want to win. It’s impossible to know exactly what is going on in Beck and Iamaleava’s heads, but on the outside it appears they only want a big payday. This is good news for Georgia because this is not how the Bulldogs operate their program.
Georgia has a lot of NIL money to offer their players, but they have shown they are unwilling to break the bank for any one player. This has helped Georgia build an overall stronger team, which has led to two National Championships in the NIL era.
So while other teams focus on contract negotiations, Georgia can focus on preparing for the season ahead. So hopefully these distractions for Tennessee and Miami turn into actual distractions for their team, because the Vols are a big competitor in the SEC for Georgia and the Hurricanes have a shot to make it to the College Football Playoff this season and challenge UGA there.
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