Arkansas AD takes strong stance on NIL buyouts

It’s been a wild few weeks in the college football transfer portal, and much of it has surrounded former Tennessee quarterback Nico Iamaleava.

He decided to leave Tennessee the day before the Vols’ spring game and ended up committing to UCLA. That caused new UCLA quarterback Joey Aguilar, who had just transferred in from Appalachian State, to re-enter the transfer portal himself. Ironically enough, he landed with Tennessee and is now expected to be the Vols’ starting quarterback.

Elsewhere in the SEC, Madden Iamaleava, Nico’s younger brother, decided to leave Arkansas to join his older brother at UCLA. He was slated to be a freshman at Arkansas this season after signing as a four-star quarterback recruit as part of the Razorbacks’ 2025 class.

It’s been a whirlwind, with players changing schools left and right. That’s been the big downside of the transfer portal era, and programs are bearing the brunt of it. They may also find themselves on the hook because of NIL deals with recruits coming into the program.

That’s not going to be the case at Arkansas, though. Arkansas athletic director Hunter Yurachek didn’t mention Iamaleava specifically when releasing this statement, but he did come out and back the Razorbacks’ initiative.

Specifically, he made it clear that he supports them in their efforts to recoup any NIL money that comes from broken agreements with players.

“I have spoken with the leadership team at Arkansas Edge and expressed my support in their pursuit to enforce their rights under any agreement violated by our student-athletes moving forward,” Yurachek said in a statement on X, the platform formerly known as Twitter. “We appreciate Edge’s investment in our student-athletes and acknowledge the enforcement of these agreements is vital in our new world of college athletics. We look forward to continued dialogue with all parties in resolving these.”