If Tennessee fans want the Volunteers to keep up with the big boys of college football, they’re going to have to pay the price.
On Monday, Tennessee athletic director Danny White joined On3’s Andy Staples to discuss the impending House v. NCAA settlement that would allow programs to participate in revenue sharing with their players. And while the settlement has yet to be approved, the Volunteers are already planning accordingly, with White revealing plans to add a 10 percent “talent fee” to game tickets once the settlement is finalized.
“As we talk about how we communicate with our fanbase, from the very beginning since I got here, we’ve talked about being transparent. Communicate early and often with them,” White told Staples. “We knew that as we looked at roster limits and scholarship limits going away and certainly the new $22 million revenue share coming into the athletic department, we knew we needed their help. And so how do we communicate that and make sure that we’re generating as much revenue as we can off our stadium and our arena.
“At some point, there was a lightbulb moment where somebody on our creative team just said, ‘You know what? Let’s just be transparent and call it what it is. It’s a talent fee, and it’s going directly to the talent. It’s going to our student athletes as part of this new world order in college sports. I know our fans will embrace it. They’ve supported us every step along the way and I expect the same will happen there.”
While there have been plenty of changes to the college athletics landscape in the past few years, the impending settlement possesses the potential to create one of the most dramatic shifts yet. As White alluded to, the settlement will allow programs to directly pay their rosters up to $22 million total, with rosters being capped at 105 players without a limit on scholarships.
With the changes set to go into effect for the 2025-26 season, Tennessee is already thinking ahead and it was inevitable that such costs would eventually trickle down to fans. Moving forward, it wouldn’t be surprising to see several other programs follow suit in what is just the latest example of college football’s version of keeping up with the Joneses.
[On3]
About Ben Axelrod
Ben Axelrod is a veteran of the sports media landscape, having most recently worked for NBC's Cleveland affiliate, WKYC. Prior to his time in Cleveland, he covered Ohio State football and the Big Ten for outlets including Cox Media Group, Bleacher Report, Scout and Rivals.