UCLA’s Joey Aguilar Transferring to Tennessee in Quarterback Swap

On Sunday night, UCLA quarterback Joey Aguilar lost his starting spot to Nico Iamaleava, the embattled quarterback who shocked the college football world last week by announcing he would leave Tennessee.

But now Aguilar has found a new home—at Iamaleava’s old school. 

Aguilar has committed to transfer to Tennessee and will earn “around seven-figures” in NIL (name, image, and likeness) money to do it, a source told Front Office Sports Monday night. ESPN was first to report the news. That’s still less than Iamalaeava was scheduled to be paid this year by Tennessee (around $2.4 million, according to multiple reports).

Now, the two quarterbacks have switched places in what many in the industry are dubbing the first-ever college football “trade.” Unlike in the pros, however, this trade was coincidental, rather than a result of two programs or collectives negotiating directly with each other to swap quarterbacks, FOS has confirmed. Aguilar was likely not an option for Tennessee until Iamaleava decided to transfer to UCLA.

For Aguilar, it’s been a whirlwind offseason due to forces outside his control. He entered the transfer portal this past winter after his head coach at App State was fired (a common response for players). He landed at UCLA in January and participated in spring practices in Westwood—but his world was ultimately turned upside down after Nico Iamaleava’s relationship with Tennessee fell apart. 

For Iamaleava, the last two weeks have been an NIL horror story. Now he’s ended up at a less successful football program for less money—a situation many industry experts attributed to “bad representation.” 

Iamaleava has been known to have one of the highest NIL collective contracts in all of college football. But after the Vols got knocked out of the College Football Playoff this past year, his camp asked for a raise, a source previously told FOS. (Iamaleava’s camp denies that they asked for more money.) The collective made counteroffers, the source said, but nothing was agreed and Iamaleava’s camp was increasingly unresponsive. 

He decided to transfer after drama surrounding an On3 report that Iamaleava was renegotiating his NIL contract. Iamaleava subsequently skipped the Friday practice before the spring game, and the team decided they didn’t want him back anyway.

Within a week, rumors began to surface that UCLA was Iamaleava’s next option. He announced his commitment to UCLA Sunday afternoon for a deal rumored to be in the $1.5 million range. Meanwhile, his younger brother Madden, a freshman quarterback at Arkansas, will join him at UCLA, according to ESPN.