Spyre Sports released a statement on Tuesday night clarifying their dealings with Tennessee Volunteers quarterback Nico Iamaleava during his recruitment.
The claims pertaining to the recruitment of starting quarterback Nico Iamaleava at the University of Tennessee have prompted the NCAA to open an inquiry into the school. Since then, the university has issued a statement refuting the allegations and upholding the position of the athletic department, which is that no one at the institution violated any NIL laws.
Tennessee’s NIL collective, Vol Club, is facilitated by Knoxville, TN-based Spyre Sports. Tom Mars, the lawyer for Spyre Sports, provided a statement on Tuesday evening that explained the circumstances from their point of view.
“In the beginning of 2022, Spyre Sports and Nico Iamaleava came into a mutually beneficial contractual arrangement that involved a restricted assignment of his NIL rights, regardless of the university he chose to attend. This arrangement was made outside of the University of Tennessee and anyone connected to its athletics program. These “representation agreements” are becoming more and more typical. Prospective college athletes are free to sign into such agreements, and the parties agreed that California law would govern their contractual rights and obligations. Spyre’s assertion that he expected Nico to be drafted by an NFL team later on demonstrated the commercial rationality of their agreement. The agreement also made explicit the prohibitions against using any team’s or school’s “logo or insignia.” Spyre was obliged by the agreement to safeguard Nico’s NIL rights, and it made it clear that “nothing in the agreement constitutes any form of inducement to ATHLETE to enroll at any school and/or join any athletic team.” To put it succinctly, the arrangement complied perfectly with the NCAA’s “guidelines” at the time and had nothing to do with Nico being recruited to the University of Tennessee or any other university. Presently representing over 100 collegiate athletes, Spyre Sports and the Vol Club take great pride in having assisted them in maximizing the value of their legally protected name, image, and likeness.” Tom Mars, an attorney for Spyre Sports