Nico Iamaleava is becoming somewhat of a martyr, but yet a primary example, in today's NIL environment.
Iamaleava did not show up at Tennessee's spring practice last Friday, reportedly due to NIL contract discussions.
Iamaleava, 20, is reportedly set to earn $2.4 million this season but wants to renegotiate his deal to $4 million per year. However, reports are circulating that schools are offering less than half of his original pay.
The quarterback's essential holdout has brought upon much criticism, and an ESPN staple chimed in on Thursday, pleading with a school near his home to stay away.
"UCLA - don't do it. Don't take him. This kid is toxic," Bill Plaschke, a writer for the Los Angeles Times who often appears on "Around the Horn," said on Thursday's show.
"At some point, we have to talk about these kids. He had a $2.4 million salary, he wants to nearly double his salary even though he hasn't won a playoff game, and he walks out on the team on the first day of spring training. He's all about the money, he's not about the team. Two-and-a-half million dollars is not enough for him even though he's an average quarterback."
The 20-year-old was reportedly going to make $2.2 million with Tennessee for the 2025-26 season through the school's NIL collective and Spyre Sports Group.
The deal, which he signed as a high school junior, reportedly had the potential to exceed $10 million with incentives that included championship and Heisman Trophy wins.
But that all changed when ESPN reported that Iamaleava was seeking a deal of around $4 million for this season, which other quarterbacks transferring this year are getting. One of them was Carson Beck, who left the Georgia Bulldogs to join the Miami Hurricanes.
Tennessee moved on from the quarterback amid the controversy.
Iamaleava reportedly entered the transfer portal Wednesday with a "do not contact" tag by his profile, which indicates he has some idea where he'll be playing next. Oregon is a program that has been linked to Iamaleava since reports began to surface about his situation at Tennessee.
Fox News' Scott Thompson and Ryan Canfield contributed to this report.
Former Scotland football manager Graeme Souness broke down in tears as he opened up about a painful health condition during a live television interview.
The Democrat majority in the Maine House of Representatives voted to pass a bill that would codify the Maine Human Rights Act (MHRA) in the state's constitution on Thursday.
The MHRA has been the state's tent pole legislation in allowing trans athletes in girls' sports during an ongoing feud with President Donald Trump's administration over the issue.
The law was amended four years ago to add gender identity as a protected class and specifically stated that denying a person an equal opportunity to participate in sports is discrimination against education. Last year, the Maine Principals’ Association updated its policy to allow athletes to compete against the gender they identify as.
The proposed bill to constitutionalize the MHRA passed with a slim simple majority in the House on Thursday but will need a two-thirds majority in both chambers before it can go before voters.
Meanwhile, the Republican minority in the House is backing a proposal to remove the term "gender identity" from the MHRA.
The vote came one day after the U.S. Department of Justice filed a lawsuit against the state for its ongoing defiance of Trump's "Keeping Men Out of Women's Sports" executive order. Maine has faced immense federal pressure in the last two months over its refusal to comply, including two federal investigations, a funding freeze by the U.S. Department of Agriculture and now an official lawsuit.
But the Democrat leadership in the state, led by Governor Janet Mills, has remained steadfast in its commitment to defy Trump and ensure biologically male trans athletes can still participate in girls' sports and enter girls' locker rooms.
The MHRA has been the central law those Democrats have leaned on to justify their defiant stance.
Maine Attorney General Aaron Frey justified his state's noncompliance with Trump by citing the MHRA in an interview on CNN Wednesday.
"Our position is that Title IX, consistent with the Maine Human Rights Act, so both federal and state law, supports that trans girls will be able to participate in high school sports consistent with their gender identity," Frey said. "So my contention is Maine is following Title IX, Maine is following the Maine Human Rights Act."
Fox News Digital previously obtained statements from the Maine Principals’ Association and the Maine School Administrative District 51, citing the MHRA for its refusal to comply with Trump's executive order.
"The Maine Principals’ Association is bound by the law, including the Maine Human Rights Act (MHRA), which our participation policy reflects," officials said. "We are unable to sign any resolution agreement that would mandate we create a new policy that would violate the law and MHRA."
The Maine School Administrative District 51, home to Greely High School, where a transgender athlete incited national controversy after winning a girls' pole vault competition in February, also pointed to the Maine Human Rights Act for allowing the athlete to compete.
"The MSAD #51 Board of Directors is guided by the Mission, Vision, and Core Values of our district. This includes promoting a safe, caring and ethical learning environment where each person will be treated with respect and fairness; and individuals are recognized, valued and supported," the district said in a statement.
However, the majority of Maine residents disagree with allowing trans athletes to compete in girls' sports.
A survey by the American Parents Coalition found that out of about 600 registered Maine voters, 63% said school sports participation should be based on biological sex, and 66% agreed that it is "only fair to restrict women’s sports to biological women."
The poll also found that 60% of residents would support a ballot measure limiting participationinwomen’s and girls' sports tobiological females. This included 64% of independents and 66% of parents with kids under age 18.
And while Maine's Democrat leadership refuses to comply with Trump's executive order, one school district is taking matters into its own hands and defying the state anyway.
The MSAD #70 School Board voted unanimously on Monday night to comply with Title IX, "recognizing only two sexes - biological male and biological female and that all private spaces be separated by biological sex."
MSAD #70 superintendent Tyler Putnam told Fox News Digital that, due to this vote, he is now directed to amend the district's policies to prevent trans athletes from competing in girls' sports.
"Our board, similar to many people in Maine, have been following the back-and-forth communication between the federal government and the state. We are hoping for both sides to work together to help support local school districts like ourselves," Putnam said.
"The board and our staff's No. 1 priority is to provide our students with an education that will positively impact their future in our great state and country."
A school board meeting in California featured emotional debate over transgender athletes being allowed to share locker rooms with high-school girls. One girl who cried during a speech was told to "wrap it up" by the board president.
During the Lucia Mar Unified School District (LMUSD) board meeting on Wednesday, a high-school junior girls' track athlete at Arroyo Grande High School named Celeste Diest took the podium to recount her experience of having to change in front of a biologically male trans athlete before practice, while that athlete allegedly watched her undress.
"I went into the women's locker room to change for track practice where I saw, at the end of my row, a biological male watching not only myself, but the other young women undress. This experience was beyond traumatizing," Diest said, as she began to choke up and cry.
"Adults like yourself make me and my peers feel like our own comfort was invalid, even though our privacy was and still is completely violated."
Diest then fought through her tears to argue that the trans athlete's XY chromosomes define the person as a male, adding, "That is basic biology."
But Diest was then interrupted by LMUSD board president Colleen Martin.
"Okay, please wrap it up," Martin said, gesturing to Diest to finish her point.
The teen then sniffled and continued speaking.
"I just want to ask ‘what about us?’ We can not sit around and allow our rights to be given up to cater to an individual that is a man, who watches women undress and is stripping away female opportunity that once was fought for us. Sadly we have to try and regain our rights back. I hope you put effort into the restoration of our school safety."
Diest then walked away from the podium to a roaring applause from the audience before Martin tried to silence the cheers.
Martin even began slamming her gavel down to try and temper the growing applause, but the cheers only got louder after that.
"No!" Martin yelled when the cheers got louder.
Then, Martin just sat there silently as the applause continued for several more seconds, before it finally tempered, and the next speaker gave another speech opposing trans inclusion.
Prior to Diest's speech, one of the other speakers, a woman named Shannon Kessler, who was scheduled to go after the teen, asked Martin whether she could give her speaking time to Diest. But Martin denied that request.
"We're not doing that," Martin said.
Several other parents gave speeches in opposition of trans athletes in attendance, while other community members spoke in support of trans inclusion.
California has been one of the many blue states in the nation to defy President Donald Trump's "Keeping Men Out of Women's Sports" executive order, and has allowed trans athletes to compete with girls for over a decade.
A law called AB 1266 has been in effect since 2014, and gives California students at scholastic and collegiate levels the right to "participate in sex-segregated school programs and activities, including athletic teams and competitions, and use facilities consistent with his or her gender identity, irrespective of the gender listed on the pupil’s records."
California Code of Regulations section 4910(k) defines gender as: "A person’s actual sex or perceived sex and includes a person’s perceived identity, appearance or behavior, whether or not that identity, appearance, or behavior is different from that traditionally associated with a person’s sex at birth."
CIF Bylaw 300.D. mirrors the Education Code, stating, "All students should have the opportunity to participate in CIF activities in a manner that is consistent with their gender identity, irrespective of the gender listed on a student’s records."
These laws and the subsequent enabling of trans athletes to compete with girls and women in the state has resulted in multiple controversies over the issue over the last year alone.
The California Interscholastic Federation (CIF) said it will continue to follow the state's law that allows athletes to participate as whichever gender they identify as, a spokesperson told Fox News Digital.
"The CIF provides students with the opportunity to belong, connect, and compete in education-based experiences in compliance with California law [Education Code section 221.5. (f)] which permits students to participate in school programs and activities, including athletic teams and competitions, consistent with the student’s gender identity, irrespective of the gender listed on the student’s records," a CIF statement said.
The California state legislature's Democrat majority rejected two bills that would have changed state law to ban trans athletes from girls' sports on April 1.
The United Football Players Association has ratified a new collective bargaining agreement with the United Football League, ending nearly six months of negotiations, according to union officials.
