The University of Tennessee has a top-notch football team, record-breaking financials and another plan to use the former to build on the latter — with an eye on the future.
The university announced a 10 percent “talent fee” will be added to the cost of 2025 football season tickets, in preparation for the arrival of revenue sharing with college athletes. That, along with an initial 4.5 percent average increase, means Vols fans will pay 14.5 percent more on average for tickets next season.
“According to current settlement projections, which may be effective as early as July 1, 2025, institutions can share revenue with their student-athletes,” the university said in a statement announcing the price hike.
Judge Claudia Wilken of the Northern District of California declined to rule earlier this month on preliminary approval of a multi-billion dollar settlement in the House v. NCAA lawsuit because of language that would limit third-party name, image and likeness payments to athletes from boosters and collectives. Wilken advised lawyers on both sides to “go back to the drawing board” on a settlement that would provide $2.75 billion in back-pay damages for former Division I athletes and implement a revenue-sharing model between power-conference schools and athletes.
A May news release on the settlement described the revenue sharing as an “addition to scholarships, third-party NIL payments, health care and other benefits that college athletes already receive.” It estimated that over the 10-year settlement period, the total value would “exceed $20 billion, making it one of the largest antitrust class-action settlements in history.”
Tennessee has made enormous financial gains since athletic director Danny White was hired in 2021, setting a record in the 2022-23 financial year with $202.1 million in revenues — obliterating the previous fiscal year’s record of $154.6 million. Aggressive fundraising is part of the strategy, and that total in the 2022-23 fiscal year was a record $131.45 million.
That includes per-seat donation programs for the basketball, baseball and softball teams. When White arrived, Tennessee only had that program for football.
