Bill Plaschke pleads with UCLA not to take ‘toxic’ Nico Iamaleava in transfer portal

UCLA is at the goal line with its efforts to bring in transfer quarterback Nico Iamaleava from Tennessee, but longtime Los Angeles Times columnist Bill Plaschke is begging the university to reconsider.

In an appearance on ESPN’s Around the Horn on Thursday, Plaschke called the quarterback — who left Knoxville over NIL disagreements — “toxic” and pled with Bruins leadership not to take him.

“UCLA, don’t do it,” Plaschke said.

“Don’t take him. This kid is toxic. At some point, we have to talk about these kids. He had a $2.4 million salary, he wanted to double his money even though he hasn’t won a playoff game. And he walks out on the team in spring practice … goes into the transfer portal. So the next team that takes him has to understand he’s all about the money, he’s not about the team, and $2.5 million is not enough for him even though he’s an average quarterback.”

LA Times columnist Bill Plaschke on reports that Nico Iamaleava is headed to UCLA:

“Don’t do it. Don’t take him. This kid is toxic.” pic.twitter.com/NS8sSOCFVR

— Awful Announcing (@awfulannouncing) April 17, 2025

While Plaschke’s rant was oriented around holding supposedly greedy college kids accountable for chasing money, he neglected to include an important financial detail.

Reports from ESPN and elsewhere indicate Iamaleava is taking an NIL paycut to go to UCLA, near his hometown of Long Beach. Iamaleava reportedly was making around $2.5 million annually on a deal with Tennessee’s NIL collective and wanted a raise up to $4 million. But at UCLA, his deal will be “not for nearly the money he was asking for from Tennessee,” according to ESPN’s Chris Low.

So perhaps Iamaleava truly was frustrated by how the Volunteers program conducted business.

In his retort, Plaschke insisted on the right to call out college athletes. But ATH host Tony Reali reminded him that plenty of people, including prominent college football voices like Paul Finebaum, have ripped Iamaleava all week.

Plaschke may turn out to be right that Iamaleava is selfish and his UCLA tenure fails. But the latest details suggest that, at the very least, unless nobody else was offering Iamaleava $2.4 million or close to it, choosing UCLA was not solely a financial decision.