Absurd Rodney Rice NIL deal was something Tennessee was never going to touch

It’s time to move to plan B for the Tennessee Vols and head coach Rick Barnes. This offseason, Tennessee has been able to land some quality talent via the transfer portal, plus people are still buzzing over 5-star power forward Nate Ament committing on Sunday.

There was still plenty of hope that a major splash would be on the way, with plenty of focus on Maryland shooting guard transfer Rodney Rice. Rice could have arrived in Knoxville and immediately played alongside fellow former Maryland standout Ja’Kobi Gillespie.

It felt written in the stars that the two would both put on a show for Barnes in 2025-26. However, that’s not going to happen, with Rice committing to USC on Tuesday. Per Matt Norlander, the Trojans put a $3 million NIL deal on the table for Rice, which obviously was way too rich for UT to even think about.

With the Vols still adding pieces for next season’s roster, the hope truly was that Rice would don orange and be the starting shooting guard for this team. However, money talks these days and Rice understandably went where he was going to get a major payday.

Yes, bringing in Rice would have been awesome for the Vols, but $3 million? Never going to happen. With Rice off the board, Barnes is going to have to look at other options in the portal. Elyjah Freeman was considered another top target for Tennessee, but he just signed with Auburn.

So, where will Barnes turn next? That’s a bit unknown, but we should get more clarity on things in the next couple of days. The portal officially closed on Tuesday night, meaning there will be no new entries unless there’s an upcoming coaching change. Barnes has been brilliant this offseason in landing fantastic talent, but there’s still plenty of work to be done.