If you were in need of another reminder that we are truly in a brand new era of college football and collegiate athletics as a whole, then you were given a major wake-up call on Saturday with the breaking news out of Knoxville, Tennessee. Tennessee head coach Josh Heupel confirmed the Volunteers are moving forward without redshirt freshman quarterback Nico Iamaleava following a standoff over a NIL contract. Yes, we have another level of professional sports filtering into the college sports world. All we were missing from this may have been Iamaleava doing situps in his driveway with a flood of media questioning him and his agent.
Pete Thamel of ESPN reported Tennessee broke off the discussions once the NIL contract discussions became public and Iamaleava missed practices, including a Friday practice before Tennessee's spring game this weekend. We should absolutely not expect this to be the last time a situation like this pops up. In fact, we already know he transfer portal has been largely influenced by NIL compensation options for players in football and basketball. If you are Penn State head coach James Franklin, you have to see this and wonder when it may become a serious concern for the Nittany Lions.
Franklin has never been shy about expressing his thoughts and concerns about NIL and the current state of the college football world moving forward. Franklin sees the concerns of NIL and the influence it has on the transfer portal and has suggested it is not a good thing for the sport.
"One of the things that I think is really important is I'm still a big believer in transformational relationships, and college football being transformational," Franklion said a year ago. "I'm worried that college football is becoming more and more transactional."
Odds are that Franklin's stance on the current state of college football has not changed much. And the developments with Tennessee are only going to strengthen Franklin's overall concerns.
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This article originally appeared on Nittany Lions Wire: James Franklin likely saw what happened at Tennessee coming ...
