The University of Tennessee added a 10% “talent fee” to next season’s football tickets in preparation for the athlete revenue-sharing model that could come from House v NCAA.
Separate from an additional 4.5% year-to-year average ticket price hike, the talent fee will go directly to student-athletes as part of the House case’s athlete revenue sharing model.
If House is settled with no further adjustments, colleges would be allowed to share up to $22 million in revenue with student-athletes. For the Tennessee athletic department, which earned over $200 million in revenue in 2023, this would be over 10% of their revenue. Considering Tennessee ranked 8th nationwide for athletic department revenue last year, this percentage would be much higher for most schools.
While the $22 million figure would not be a requirement, top schools may feel pressure to reach this number to recruit top talent.
“In this era of name, image and likeness, there has never been as close a connection between resources and competitive success,” said Tennessee’s athletic director Danny White.
Tennessee’s decision to explicitly tie ticket pricing to athlete payments came in part to mitigate backlash. The department thought fans would be more sympathetic to price hikes if they knew that most of it was going straight to the athletes. Despite this thought process, many social media posts complaining about the price hike still gained traction.
“And it begins…. The athletic department passing the cost on to the loyal fans,” reads one comment with thousands of likes.
Though Tennessee is the first school to directly tie ticket pricing to athlete payments, they are not necessarily the first school to raise revenue in preparation for athlete sharing. In fact, the University of Louisville’s Athletic Director Josh Heird told the Associated Press that he imagines other schools will follow suit with ticket price increases.
In a USA Today Article, Ohio State Athletic Director Ross Bjork called Tennessee’s move “creative and timely” while saying his own university’s plan to increase revenue is still on the table.
Claudia Wilken, the judge presiding over House v. NCAA, is still reviewing details of the revenue sharing model. Tennessee prides itself in being ahead of the curve.
“We want to be a leader in college sports. That means we want to be a leader in revenue sharing.” White said.
This is a small step in the right direction. I personally won’t be happy until we see tuition raised for all students to cover gas fees on ETH transactions pertaining to sales of NFT tickets for the econ department’s Excel modeling team. Only then will I be confident that universities have a just compensation plan in place to reward the talent that drives enrollment.
College is meant to be expensive, not enjoyed. Thank you to Grant and the other brave athletes that signed on for getting the ball rolling.
LOL
That’s an uninformed and naive opinion.
I applaud the move. He is safeguarding non revenue sports in a time when no rev sports are in danger of getting cut. He’s telling football fans you need to help pay these players. That will free up 10-12 million dollars, that would have to be made up. Once the lawsuit is settled schools are looking at 30-40 million a year to pay back nil. Most schools are looking at which non rev sport to cut to keep up with the jones. White instead said if you want to have high level players, then pay for it because we aren’t going to sacrifice other sports.
White has spent considerable money on swimming and… Read more »
It’s not a naive and uninformed opinion, it’s a joke.
I don’t envy the ADs and other decision makers who have to navigate the new NIL era. I guess thanks for spending time pointing out what Danny White has done to help non-rev sports?
There’s a Supertramp song that comes to mind…
Goodbye college swim
It’s been nice
Future athletes will
Pay the priiiiice
Tried to see Grant House’s
Point of view
From his career
$7 in revenue
Goodbye Marchand
Goodbye Walsh
Will you ever swim
Yards agaaain
Feel only sorrow
Only pain
Opportunity
Never agaaaaain
Just imagine a future where you order your college football tickets on TicketMaster, the line items of fees is going to make a CVS receipt blush