The Edmonton Oilers clinched the NHL’s 13th playoff berth on Friday night, giving them a chance for another run after last season’s trip to Game 7 of the Stanley Cup Final.

The Minnesota Wild and Montreal Canadiens came up short Friday in their efforts to clinch, but they get another shot on Saturday. The Wild will need help. Also, the Vegas Golden Knights (Pacific) and Winnipeg Jets (Central) can clinch division titles. If they do, two more playoff series (Dallas Stars vs. Colorado Avalanche and Los Angeles Kings vs. Oilers, home-ice advantage TBD) will be confirmed.

Here’s a look at the NHL playoff picture through games of April 11:

Who’s in the NHL playoffs?

Eastern Conference: Washington Capitals, Carolina Hurricanes, New Jersey Devils, Toronto Maple Leafs, Tampa Bay Lightning, Florida Panthers, Ottawa Senators
Western Conference: Winnipeg Jets, Dallas Stars, Colorado Avalanche, Vegas Golden Knights, Los Angeles Kings, Edmonton Oilers

Who can clinch Saturday?

The Canadiens will clinch a playoff berth if they beat the Maple Leafs in regulation. They’ll also clinch if they win in overtime or a shootout and the Blue Jackets don’t beat the Capitals in regulation. Third option: They get one point and the Blue Jackets lose. Update: The Blue Jackets won in regulation so Montreal will need to win in regulation.
The Wild will clinch a playoff berth if they beat the Canucks and the Blues lose to the Kraken in regulation.
The Jets will clinch the Central Division title and the No. 1 seed in the Western Conference if they get at least one point vs. the Blackhawks or if the Stars don’t beat Utah in regulation.
The Golden Knights will clinch the Pacific Division title if they defeat the Predators in regulation. They’d also clinch if they win in overtime or a shootout and the Kings don’t beat the Avalanche in regulation. Third option: They get one point and the Kings lose. Fourth option: The Kings lose in regulation.

NHL games today (Saturday, April 12)

N.Y. Islanders at Philadelphia, 12:30
Washington at Columbus, 12:30 | ABC | ESPN+ | Fubo
N.Y. Rangers at Carolina, 3 | ABC | ESPN+ | Fubo
Colorado at Los Angeles, 4
Buffalo at Florida, 6
Montreal at Toronto, 7
Winnipeg at Chicago, 7 | NHL Network
Utah at Dallas, 8
Minnesota at Vancouver, 10
Nashville at Vegas, 10
St. Louis at Seattle, 10

NHL Eastern Conference standings 2024-25

(as of games April 11; x-clinched playoff berth; y-clinched division title; z-eliminated from postseason contention)

Metropolitan Division

y-Washington Capitals (109 points)
x-Carolina Hurricanes (97)
x-New Jersey Devils (89)

Atlantic Division

x-Toronto Maple Leafs (100)
x-Tampa Bay Lightning (98)
x-Florida Panthers (96)

Wild card

x-Ottawa Senators (92)
Montreal Canadiens (87)

Sitting outside playoff position: Columbus Blue Jackets (83), New York Rangers (81), Detroit Red Wings (81), z-New York Islanders (80), z-Pittsburgh Penguins (78), z-Buffalo Sabres (76), z-Philadelphia Flyers (75), z-Boston Bruins (73)

NHL Western Conference standings 2024-25

(as of games April 11; x-clinched playoff berth; z-eliminated from postseason contention)

Central Division

x-Winnipeg Jets (112)
x-Dallas Stars (106)
x-Colorado Avalanche (100)

Pacific Division

x-Vegas Golden Knights (105)
x-Los Angeles Kings (99)
x-Edmonton Oilers (97)

Wild card

Minnesota Wild (93)
St. Louis Blues (93)

Sitting outside playoff spot: Calgary Flames (90), z-Vancouver Canucks (87), z-Utah Hockey Club (85), z-Anaheim Ducks (78), z-Seattle Kraken (74), z-Nashville Predators (66), z-Chicago Blackhawks (56), z-San Jose Sharks (51)

NHL playoffs if they started today

NHL Eastern Conference playoff bracket

Here is how the Eastern Conference playoff bracket would look if the season ended after games on April 11:

Key: M – Metropolitan Division. A – Atlantic Division. WC – wild card

Washington (M1) vs. Montreal (WC2)
Carolina (M2) vs. New Jersey (M3) This series has been confirmed.
Toronto (A1) vs. Ottawa (WC1)
Tampa Bay (A2) vs. Florida (A3)

The winner of the first series would play the winner of the second. The winner of the third series would play the winner of the fourth. 

NHL Western Conference playoff bracket

Here is how the Western Conference playoff bracket would look if the season ended after games on April 11:

Key: C – Central Division P – Pacific Division. WC – wild card

Winnipeg (C1) vs. St. Louis (WC2)
Dallas (C2) vs. Colorado (C3)
Vegas (P1) vs. Minnesota (WC1)
Los Angeles (P2) vs. Edmonton (P3)

The winner of the first series would play the winner of the second. The winner of the third series would play the winner of the fourth.

What is the tiebreaker procedure for the NHL playoffs?

If two or more teams are tied in points at the end of the regular season, here are the tiebreakers (how tiebreakers affect the playoff races):

Regulation wins
Regulation and overtime wins
Total wins
Most points earned in head-to-head competition: If teams had an uneven number of meetings, the first game played in the city that has the extra game is excluded.
Goal differential
Total goals

When does the NHL regular season end?

The NHL regular season is scheduled to end on Thursday, April 17, with seven games.

When do the NHL playoffs start?

The NHL’s Stanley Cup playoffs are scheduled to begin on Saturday, April 19.

The NBA playoff scenarios are not infinite headed into the final day of the regular season Sunday.

But the permutations for seeding in the Western Conference playoffs are numerous as all 30 teams conclude an 82-game schedule with a jam-packed 15-game slate.

The Eastern Conference seeds are set 1-10 while the West still remains a jumble of possibilities. The Minnesota Timberwolves could finish with the fourth seed … or the eighth seed.

In the West, the Oklahoma City Thunder are the No. 1 seed, the Houston Rockets are the No. 2 seed, and the Los Angeles Lakers are the No. 3 seed. And the Sacramento Kings will play the Dallas Mavericks in the 9-vs.-10 play-in game though which team is ninth and which is 10th won’t be known until after the Kings (vs. Phoenix) and Mavs (vs. Memphis) play Sunday.

In the East, the Cleveland Cavaliers earned the No. 1 seed, followed by the Boston Celtics at No. 2, New York Knicks at No. 3, Indiana Pacers at No. 4, Milwaukee Bucks at No. 5 and Detroit Pistons at No. 6. Indiana will play Milwaukee, and New York will play Detroit in a first-round series.

No. 7 Orlando Magic will play No. 8 Atlanta Hawks in a play-in game with the winner earning the seventh seed and a matchup against Boston in the first round. The winner of No. 9 Chicago Bulls vs. No. 10 Miami Heat will play the loser of Orlando-Atlanta for the No. 8 seed and first-round series against Cleveland.

Here’s what we don’t know:

Seeds 4-8 are underdetermined in the West. The Denver Nuggets (49-32), Los Angeles Clippers (49-32), Golden State Warriors (48-33) and Minnesota (48-33) are a game within each other, and the Warriors, Timberwolves and Memphis Grizzlies (47-34) are a game within each other.

Keep in mind – Houston has nothing to gain or lose in its game against Denver.

Western Conference playoff seeding possibilities

Denver Nuggets

The Nuggets will earn the No. 4 seed with a victory against Houston. The Nuggets will get the No. 5 seed with a loss to Houston plus a Clippers win over Golden State and a Utah win over Minnesota. Denver would drop to the sixth seed with a loss to Houston plus a Clippers victory and a Timberwolves victory. The play-in game as the No. 7 seed is also a possibility for the Nuggets – if they lose plus Minnesota and Golden State win.

Los Angeles Clippers

The Clippers will land the No. 4 seed with a victory over Golden State and Houston victory against Denver. The Clippers will end up No. 5 with a victory plus Denver beating Houston and Utah beating Minnesota. There are other ways for the Clippers to finish fifth – with a loss plus a Minnesota loss or with a loss plus a Denver loss and a Minnesota victory.

Golden State Warriors

The Warriors will finish as either sixth or seventh seed. A win vs. the Clippers guarantees the Warriors the No. 6 seed, and that would mean a first-round series featuring LeBron James and the Lakers and Steph Curry and the Warriors. The Warriors can also finish sixth with a loss – if the Jazz beat Minnesota. The Warrior will end up No. 7 with a loss and Minnesota victory.

Minnesota Timberwolves

The Timberwolves enter the day with widest range of possibilities. They will earn the No. 4 seed with a victory plus losses by the Nuggets and Clippers. The fifth seed can be obtained by Minnesota with a victory plus a Warriors win over the Clippers. Minnesota can also sneak into the No. 5 seed with a victory and a Denver loss. If the Timberwolves win and the Nuggets and Clippers win, they land sixth. The Timberwolves are No. 7 with a loss and a Memphis loss and go to No. 8 with a loss and a Memphis victory.

Memphis Grizzlies

The Grizzlies can finish no better than No. 7. They need to win and Minnesota needs to lose for that to happen. Otherwise, Memphis is the No. 8 seed.

Sunday’s NBA schedule

(All times Eastern; all games on locally or NBA League Pass, unless otherwise noted)

Orlando at Atlanta, 1 p.m.
Charlotte at Boston, 1 p.m.
New York at Brooklyn, 1 p.m.
Indiana at Cleveland, 1 p.m.
Washington at Miami, 1 p.m.
Chicago at Philadelphia, 1 p.m.
Detroit at Milwaukee, 1 p.m., ESPN
Denver at Houston, 3:30 p.m.
Dallas at Memphis, 3:30 p.m.
Utah at Minnesota, 3:30 p.m.
Oklahoma City at New Orleans, 3:30 p.m.
Toronto at San Antonio, 3:30 p.m.
Los Angeles Clippers at Golden State, 3:30 p.m., ESPN
Los Angeles Lakers at Portland, 3:30 p.m.
Phoenix at Sacramento, 3:30 p.m.

AUGUSTA, Ga. – Nobody should ever, under any circumstances, feel bad for Dustin Johnson. The man won 24 times and $75 million on the PGA Tour, cashed out for another reported $125 million or so to go to LIV Golf and takes the private jet back to his $14 million house in Florida where Paulina Gretzky and their two kids will love him whether he shoots 65 or 85.

Life’s probably pretty good.

That’s a decent enough explanation for why Johnson, after finishing bogey-double bogey Friday to finish one shot worse than the projected cut line at the Masters, didn’t seem particularly frustrated about potentially going home early for the third time in the past five years. He was even genial, saying he felt pretty good about the way he was hitting the ball.  

“I’m playing better than I scored for sure,” he said after signing for a 73, his 11th straight round here in the 70s.

But to follow Johnson around Augusta National these days is, frankly, a bit of a sad scene.

Here’s a guy who won this tournament five years ago at the COVID-delayed Masters for his second major championship, contended at about half the majors over a 10-year period and was just generally great at golf with a game that traveled to nearly any kind of course, under nearly any kind of conditions. You just assumed you’d see Johnson on the leaderboard because he always seemed to be there.  

These days? Even here, at a place he won and once made five straight top-10s, he feels far more irrelevant than he should be.

There was a time not too long ago when you could have plucked two guys off nearby Washington Road, paired them with Johnson and drawn huge galleries anywhere because he was that big of a name and his powerful, majestic game was that spectacular to watch.

But in the context of what Johnson has done since signing with LIV – which is to say, almost nothing of note – Augusta National pairing him with Nick Taylor and amateur Justin Hastings for the first two rounds feels like a statement about his place in the game. And it’s not particularly good.

So the question is simple: Is the old Johnson ever coming back, or is one of the great careers of this century just effectively over from a competitive standpoint?

“All it takes is one good round though and it’s kind of right back into it,” Johnson said. “You know, for me, just got to clean up the mistakes a little bit. The game is in good form. Just got to limit the mistakes.”

One of those mistakes occurred on 18 when he blocked a drive way into the right trees, pitched out to the bottom of the hill, flew his third over the green, hit a mediocre chip to about six feet and slid the putt by on the right side. Just like that, his tournament was over, and it’s pretty typical of what’s gone on since he went to LIV.

Because Johnson’s body language on the course always has been nonchalant to the point of being aloof, it’s hard to read into very much other than the scorecard. But obviously something changed the moment he took a huge payday that didn’t require him to put up results. Did he lose his hunger? Did he stop working as hard as he used to? And will he ever get it back to the point where you think of him at every major as someone who can win?

Because it’s wild, given the career he’s had, that nobody thinks of him that way anymore.

“Golf is a funny game,” he said. “You (could) play the same round and shoot 4-5-under (or), as I did today, shoot 1-over. You know, just couple putts here and there drop and gives you a little momentum, a little confidence, it’s a different day.”

That’s true. But it’s more believable when you’re occasionally in the mix as opposed to cut, tied-43rd, cut, tied-31st, and cut at the past five majors.

And here’s the really scary part: Time is running out. Though Johnson will have a lifetime exemption to play this tournament as a past champion, he will only be able to qualify for two more US Opens and once more in the PGA and British on the five-year major exemption he earned at the 2020 Masters.

After that, there’s no automatic pathway for Johnson to get in those tournaments. With his world ranking in the 600s, he’d have to get some kind of special exemption or record a high enough finish in one of the majors to qualify for the following year (top-10 at the US and British opens, top-15 at the PGA get invited back). Unless things turn around – quickly – he’s going to be in real danger of just disappearing from major championships fields except for at the Masters.

In a couple months, the US Open will return to Oakmont where Johnson won his first major in 2016. It should produce some good memories. But it will also be a reminder of how far and how quickly he’s fallen.

“Hopefully the game is in really good form when you pull in,” he said. “I like the course. It’s right in front of you, but it’s just hard.”

For a player who used to make everything look pretty easy, what isn’t hard these days?

Follow USA TODAY Sports columnist Dan Wolken on social media @danwolken.bsky.social

Winning the Masters Tournament is about more than money for the best golfers in the world. There’s a green jacket that comes with it too, of course. But the prestige of being crowned champion during the season’s first major at prestigious Augusta National Golf Club lasts forever, and the lifetime exemption to play in the Masters each winner earns serves as proof over the years.

There’s nonetheless still a lot of money at stake for the contenders this weekend. The Masters announced Saturday that this year’s purse will be $21 million, with the winner on Sunday earning $4.2 million. That’s an increase from last year’s record amount, when there was a total payout of $20 million for the golfers that made the cut and defending Masters champion Scottie Scheffler earned $3.6 million for winning his second green jacket.

Here’s a breakdown of how this year’s Masters purse will be doled out when the final round concludes on Sunday, as well as what the payouts and prize money have been in previous years at Augusta National Golf Club:

Masters prize money 2025: Winner payout, purse

Here’s the prize money breakdown for the 2025 Masters as announced by tournament officials:

Winner: $4.2 million
2nd place: $2.268 million
3rd place: $1.428 million
4th place: $1.008 million
5th place: $840,000
6th place: $756,000
7th place: $703,500
8th place: $651,000
9th place: $609,000
10th place: $567,000
11th place: $525,000
12th place: $483,000
13th place: $441,000
14th place: $399,000
15th place: $378,000
16th place: $357,000
17th place: $336,000
18th place: $315,000
19th place: $294,000
20th place: $273,000
21st place: $252,000
22nd place: $235,200
23rd place: $218,400
24th place: $201,600
25th place: $184,800
26th place: $168,000
27th place: $161,700
28th place: $155,400
29th place: $149,100
30th place: $142,800
31st place: $136,500
32nd place: $130,200
33rd place: $123,900
34th place: $118,650
35th place: $113,400
36th place: $108,150
37th place: $102,900
38th place: $98,700
39th place: $94,500
40th place: $90,300
41st place: $86,100
42nd place: $81,900
43rd place: $77,700
44th place: $73,500
45th place: $69,300
46th place: $65,100
47th place: $60,900
48th place: $57,540
49th place: $54,600
50th place: $52,920

The remainder of the Masters field that made the cut for the weekend will receive prizes ranging downwards from $51,660. All golfers who did not make the cut receive $25,000.

In 2024, the total purse for the tournament was $20 million, distributed among the best-performing golfers. Here is a list of the past winners’ earnings from the Masters:

2024 winner’s share: $3.6 million (Scottie Scheffler)
2023 winner’s share: $3.24 million (Jon Rahm)
2022 winner’s share: $2.7 million (Scottie Scheffler)
2021 winner’s share: $2.07 million (Hideki Matsuyama)
2020 winner’s share: $1.8 million (Dustin Johnson)

How to watch 2025 Masters: TV, streaming for golf’s first major

Live coverage of this year’s Masters tournament will be split by ESPN and CBS, with the final two rounds on CBS.

Saturday, Apil 12 – Sunday, April 13

TV: CBS, Paramount+
Time: 12-7 p.m. ET (12-2 p.m. streaming on Paramount+, 2-7 p.m. on both CBS and Paramount+ )
Streaming: Paramount+, ESPN+ Masters.com, the Masters YouTube page and Fubo, which offers a free trial subscription for new users. Coverage starts at 10 a.m. ET

Watch the 2025 Masters with Fubo

One of the NFL’s best cornerbacks of the 2010s is calling it a career.

Patrick Peterson is retiring after 13 seasons in the NFL, per ESPN’s Adam Schefter. Peterson last suited up for the Pittsburgh Steelers in 2023 and started 16 games for the team.

He will reportedly be back in Arizona on April 14 to retire as a member of the Cardinals.

Arizona drafted Peterson No. 5 overall in the 2011 NFL draft, one of the best classes in the modern era. The first round of that draft class featured Von Miller, Julio Jones, J.J. Watt, Tyron Smith, Cameron Jordan, Cameron Heyward, Cam Newton and A.J. Green. Later picks included Jason Kelce (sixth round, No. 191 overall) and Richard Sherman (fifth round, No. 154 overall).

Peterson’s first 10 seasons in Arizona justified the Cardinals taking him high in that 2011 draft. He made the Pro Bowl every year from 2011 to 2018 and was a first team All-Pro cornerback three times, including his rookie season in 2011. He was named to the Pro Football Hall of Fame’s All-Decade team for the 2010s.

Peterson last played for the Cardinals in 2020. He signed with Minnesota the following year and spent 2021 and 2022 with the Vikings before his final year with Pittsburgh in 2023.

Patrick Peterson stats

Over 13 seasons in the league, Peterson started 200 games at cornerback and had at least one interception every season. Here are his career statistics:

Interceptions: 36 (two pick-sixes)
Passes defensed: 122
Forced fumbles: 2
Fumble recoveries: 12
Tackles: 652
Tackles for loss: 15
Sacks: 4.0

Patrick Peterson awards

Peterson was one of the most decorated players of his generation at cornerback with the following honors:

First team All-Pro: 3 times (2011, 2013, 2015)
Pro Bowls: 8 (2011-18)
Starting cornerback on NFL 2010s All-Decade team

Will Patrick Peterson make the Hall of Fame?

Using Pro Football Reference’s Hall of Fame monitor metric, Peterson has a very good chance of making it. That metric puts his career value at 86.10, which is below the average Hall of Fame defensive back value (97) but ahead of many modern inductees like Ronde Barber (81.43) and Ty Law (74.03).

The average Hall of Fame defensive back has three All-Pro honors and seven Pro Bowl nods. Peterson meets both criteria.

Anecdotally, he was considered one of the best cornerbacks in the league during his time in the NFL along with Hall of Famer Darrelle Revis and Sherman.

Peterson doesn’t have gaudy interception numbers because teams often didn’t look his way, but that shouldn’t keep him out of consideration for Canton.

The cut has been made at the 2025 Masters, meaning the first major of the season is down to the nitty-gritty.

Justin Rose (-8) leads Bryson DeChambeau by one stroke after two rounds of play at Augusta National, with 53 golfers in total clearing the cut line to qualify for Saturday’s third round and Sunday’s final round. The leaders will be the final pairing to tee off as a result, while defending champion Scottie Scheffler (-5) will step up at hole No. 1 just half an hour earlier in what promises to be a tense third day on the links.

Former champion Jordan Spieth will be among the first few golfers to get underway Saturday morning, while big names like Jon Rahm and Justin Thomas will also look to gain some ground as they start with earlier tee times.

Here are Saturday’s tee times and pairings for the third round of the 2025 Masters, as well as how to watch the first golf major of the year:

Masters tee times for third round

With the Masters having come through two rounds and the cut, here are the tee times and pairings for Saturday’s third round:

All times Eastern.

9:50 a.m. — Tom Kim
10:00 a.m. — Joaquín Niemann, Jordan Spieth
10:10 a.m. — Stephan Jaeger, Max Greysermann
10:20 a.m. — Danny Willett, J.T. Poston
10:30 a.m. — Jon Rahm, Zach Johnson
10:40 a.m. — Patrick Cantlay, Akshay Bhatia
10:50 a.m. — Denny McCarthy, J.J. Spaun
11:10 a.m. — Maverick McNealy, Charl Schwartzel
11:20 a.m. — Brian Campbell, An Byeong-hun
11:30 a.m. — Aaron Rai, Justin Thomas
11:40 a.m. — Sahith Theegala, Davis Thompson
11:50 a.m. — Matt Fitzpatrick, Wyndham Clark
Noon — Nick Taylor, Daniel Berger
12:10 p.m. — Tom Hoge, Max Homa
12:30 p.m. — Harris English, Min Woo Lee
12:40 p.m. — Sam Burns, Nicolás Echavarría
12:50 p.m. — Brian Harman, Bubba Watson
1:00 p.m. — Davis Riley, Michael Kim
1:10 p.m. — Xander Schauffele, Tommy Fleetwood
1:20 p.m. — Patrick Reed, Collin Morikawa
1:30 p.m. — Ludvig Åberg, Hideki Matsuyama
1:50 p.m. — Jason Day, Sungjae Im
2:00 p.m. — Rasmus Højgaard, Viktor Hovland
2:10 p.m.— Scottie Scheffler, Tyrrell Hatton
2:20 p.m. — Matt McCarty, Shane Lowry
2:30 p.m. — Rory McIlroy, Corey Conners
2:40 p.m. — Justin Rose, Bryson DeChambeau

Masters Tournament 2025: How to watch, TV channel, live stream

The Masters will run April 10-13, with the third round taking place on Saturday, April 12. CBS announced expanded coverage of the final two rounds that will run from 2-7 p.m. ET on Saturday and Sunday. Paramount+ will include a further two-hour window of exclusive coverage, which starts at noon ET and runs through the start of the CBS broadcast.

Dates: Thursday, April 10 – Sunday, April 13
Time: Play begins at 9:50 a.m. ET
Where: August National Golf Club (Augusta, Georgia)
TV: CBS
Stream: Paramount+, Masters.com, the Masters YouTube page and Fubo, the last of which offers a free trial subscription for new users.

Watch the third round of the Masters on Fubo

UPDATE 4/12: After this story was published, Tennessee football coach Josh Heupel informed the team Saturday morning that the Vols are moving forward without QB Nico Iamaleava.

Let me try to explain this is the simplest way possible, eliminating any pretense or pontificating. 

A guy half the player of former Tennessee star quarterback Hendon Hooker is holding the Volunteers program hostage. 

And now it’s time to cut him loose. 

It’s time for Tennessee athletic director Danny White, one of the nation’s most proactive thinkers, to give coach Josh Heupel a contract extension to cut ties with quarterback Nico Iamaleava, who missed practice Friday while his representatives reportedly are trying to renegotiate his NIL deal. 

Less than a week before the opening of the spring transfer portal.

Less than four months before the beginning of the 2025 season. 

In other words, guess who have leverage? Guess who knows it, and is trying to force Tennessee to pay top dollar for a quarterback who in 2024 was barely among the upper half of the quarterbacks in the best conference in college football.

There’s change on the horizon, all right. But not what you think.

This is the moment coaches and athletic directors and university presidents have been pointing to for the last four years. The one inflection point – in the middle of a tidal wave of change in college athletics since 2021 – that could redirect momentum. 

White and Heupel should publicly stand together and declare no player will hold a program hostage. Not now, not ever. 

The storied program of Gen. Neyland and Johnny Drum and Peyton and I Will Give My All For Tennessee Today won’t stand for this crap. And won’t give another penny to Iamaleava. 

Or any other player, now or in the future, who pulls these 11th-hour hijinks. 

If universities are so desperate to reset the transfer portal and NIL market as they nauseatingly claim on a weekly basis, they’ll start taking stands against the money grab. I’m not saying collective stands because, as we all know, that’s illegal coercion. 

But one prominent stance leads to another, and is followed by a few more and the next thing you know, the next Iamaleava who knows he has leverage will think twice before taking big swings. Momentum is a strange thing; it fills vacuums when least expected. 

And this is a gigantic blind spot. 

How else can you explain Iamaleava, who struggled with accuracy on second- and third-level throws in 2024, believing his deal should be reworked?  

A quarterback who was 76th in the nation in passing yards per game (201.2) and 43rd in completion percentage (63.8), who threw five first-down interceptions, wanted more money. Not that he deserved more money, because the numbers simply don’t bear it out.

Someone(s) convinced Iamaleava that it didn’t matter. All that mattered was Tennessee’s quarterback room, which consists of Iamaleava and not much else. At least not yet. 

The collection of dolts who moved Iamaleava toward this reckless decision clearly don’t understand a locker room dynamic. This isn’t the NFL, where players know it’s not about your teammate’s wallet. 

This is virgin territory in college football, where there’s still a drastic difference in the amount of NIL money paid out, player by player. There’s still resentment and egos.

There’s also still one undeniable reality in any locker room, with any sport: players know the difference between genuine and fake. They know who deserves respect, and who’s begging for it. 

Guess which one Iamaleava is?

Now it’s time to cut him loose, and take a stand. Time to reclaim momentum in the seemingly never-ending battle over revenue and resources. Over – here’s the key – power.

Because even if Iamaleava leaves Tennessee, you better believe there will be a line of teams trying to sign him. And someone, more than likely, will pay what he wants (hello, Southern California). 

But it’s the principle that matters now. It’s the line in the sand that some program, at some point, has to draw.

Cut Iamaleava loose, sign a quarterback from the spring portal and watch the team rally around him. Better yet, do a straight swap with Southern Cal: Iamaleava for Jayden Maiava.

Then watch it all unfold. 

The season, and a new-found change of momentum for schools and programs.

Matt Hayes is the senior national college football writer for USA TODAY Sports Network. Follow him on X at @MattHayesCFB.