Danny White thirsts for revenue. He’s a bloodhound for greenbacks. Tennessee’s athletics director is relentless, and he knows just where to look.
As College Sports Inc.’s financial rat-race enters its next lap, White and other athletics directors lift previously undisturbed rocks. They search for new revenue to help cover costs that await when revenue-sharing with athletes gains the judicial greenlight.
Ah, but they can’t resist peeking under their favorite rock, that reliable old boulder athletic departments turned to for decades, knowing there’s more cash to tap.
Underneath that familiar rock, they find you, the ravenous college sports fan, with a foam finger on one hand, a Michelob Ultra in the other, and your wallet at the ready.
You’ll help foot the bill for these new expenses. Of course you will. You always do.
Tennessee, at least, won’t try to hide it.
The Vols announced a price-gouging ticket plan for 2025 that registered as predictable, shameless … and honest.
Tennessee’s football tickets will increase by an average of 14.5% next season. That includes what the Vols call a 10% “talent fee,” money earmarked for athletes under the NCAA’s unfinalized revenue-sharing plan.
Tennessee does this because it can do it.
The No. 7-ranked Vols are cooking with grease, and Big Orange Country laps up the tasty dish Josh Heupel keeps serving.
Ticket demand exceeds the supply.
So, up, up, up the price goes.
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If you can’t afford the price hike, there’s another fella waiting to buy the seat you’ve sat in for decades.
College football speeds into the terrain of a country club membership – a luxury to be enjoyed by the well-heeled. The humble family of four can bust out the rabbit ears to tune into ABC or splurge for a YouTube TV subscription.
Pony up, or move aside.
That’s college athletics’ business mantra, and not just at Tennessee. The Vols are just forthright enough to stamp their M.O. to their forehead.
“Every change we’ve implemented, we’ve always been upfront and transparent,” White said in a video announcing the hike.
Fans will swallow the costs, believing this “talent fee” will help them outbid rivals for the next Nico Iamaleava.
Except, wait, their rivals are doing this, too. Georgia recently announced a ticket-price increase for 2025. The Bulldogs didn’t label their hike a “talent fee,” but I can add 2 plus 2 and see it equals $4.
The NCAA’s revenue-sharing model proceeds on a snail’s march. A judge still is evaluating the legal settlement that would trigger the NCAA’s plan. Schools like Tennessee and Georgia won’t wait for the dotting of the i’s.
The settlement, if approved, would place a cap on revenue-sharing. Industry estimates put that cap around $22 million annually. It’s not as if Tennessee’s “talent fee” would allow UT to dwarf Georgia’s revenue-sharing, or Alabama’s, or LSU’s. Your rivals will operate within the same cap restrictions.
NIL remains a terrain to provide separation. Third-party NIL deals would be exempt from the revenue-sharing cap.
As athletics expenses grow, so do revenues.
The Vols reported a record $202.1 million in operating revenue for the 2023 fiscal year and an $11.1 million operating surplus. A pittance next to Ohio State’s $55 million operating surplus.
TOPPMEYER: An ‘interesting’ payroll. Is Ohio State the best team NIL money can buy?
Television deals remain a fertile cash cow, especially for the SEC and Big Ten.
Tennessee recently inked a branding rights deal with Pilot Corporation worth millions that will include placing Pilot’s logos on the football fields. Arkansas struck a similar deal with Walmart and Tyson Foods.
Deals like these reside under one of those new rocks I referenced.
“We don’t have a revenue problem in college athletics,” Texas A&M athletic director Trev Alberts said earlier this year, “we have an expense problem.”
Pithy quote, but did you really think major Division I athletic departments were going to tighten the belt, rein in extraneous expenses or hold off on raises? Pfft. That’s not how this is done.
Anyway, college athletics doesn’t have a problem at all, so long as enough fans wave a pompom in one hand and reach for the tab with the other.
Why Florida didn’t fire Billy Napier
Florida fans probably wonder why Billy Napier retains a job despite his 11-16 record. Give it time. UF must pay Napier whether it fires him now or turns him into a pumpkin on Halloween. First, Florida must decide who would steer the search to replace Napier.
AD Scott Stricklin hired (then fired) Dan Mullen and replaced him with Napier. He can’t get another crack at this.
Coaching searches that begin in September end the same way as those that begin in November: with a hire shortly after Thanksgiving. The coach that could have been fired today just as easily can be fired tomorrow.
Email of the week
Dave writes (in response to my musing that I’d vote Texas No. 1): I’m a Dawg fan. While Texas no doubt has a very talented team, their schedule to date has been weak. … You more than most should understand Georgia’s historic struggles at Kentucky even in our National Championship Seasons. … Do better … Homer.
My response: A homer for whom? Texas? You must be basing this off the fact that I grew up in Illinois, attended a Division II school in Missouri and have never lived in Texas.
That sounds like a classic recipe for a Hook ’em homer, eh?
Or, perhaps, Texas simply impressed me more than Georgia has through the season’s first three weeks.
Three and out
1. Of the US LBM Coaches poll’s top 10 teams, eight start quarterbacks who either signed with their respective program out of high school or transferred years ago and have multiple years of starting experience at their current school. No. 3 Ohio State (Will Howard) and No. 6 Oregon (Dillon Gabriel) are exceptions with first-year starters who are transfers. No. 11 Miami (Cam Ward) also has that distinction.
Overall, signing and developing blue-chip quarterbacks or buying a promising transfer early in his career are the more secure methods of quarterback development.
Transfers enhance rosters, but quarterback isn’t the ideal spot for a rent-a-player.
2. The “Texas is back!” and “Vols are back!” quips no longer qualify as sarcasm. Those programs restored national relevance. Miami and Nebraska are in the on-deck circle as once-dominant programs on their way back.
Miami’s Mario Cristobal is a tremendous recruiter, and he’s got an NIL force providing the tailwind. Nebraska landed an incredible one-two punch by hiring Matt Rhule off the NFL’s scrapheap and signing legacy quarterback Dylan Raiola. The five-star freshman is playing up to his billing. No. 22 Nebraska (3-0) isn’t all the way back yet, though. An Illinois (3-0) litmus test arrives Friday in Lincoln.
3. Saturday games with major playoff implications: No. 7 Tennessee (3-0) at No. 13 Oklahoma (3-0), and No. 12 Southern Cal (2-0) at No. 17 Michigan (2-1). In each case, a loss would be particularly crippling to the home team.
Blake Toppmeyer is the USA TODAY Network’s national college football columnist. Email him at [email protected] and follow him on Twitter @btoppmeyer.
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Publish date : 2024-09-17 23:06:00
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