Breaking news:5 star shock Big 12 decommited From Colorado and flip to Tennessee vols as last key player
Anticipating all of that hitting their budgets, some schools have already incorporated new key player increases. Tennessee might be the first to mention a surcharge specifically for talent as the bidding wars for top players are exposed for what they are.
“I can’t imagine that they’re going to be the only ones that announce something like that,” Louisville AD Josh Heird told The Associated Press. “It’s just, how do you feel like you can as an athletic department come up with that from that rev share number to try to compensate the student-athletes at the highest possible level?”
The NCAA in July 2021 opened the door for NIL payments to athletes, which led to the advent of so-called collectives, funded by boosters, around many programs that are separate from school athletic departments. It’s too early to predict where collectives will end up, but regulating them is a key part of the settlement.
As for talent fees, the question is whether season ticket holders will accept paying another surcharge besides charges for handling and convenience added to the face value. Ditto for the single-game spectator mulling how much the price of admission will run.
Judging from the announcement from Tennessee — which consistently sells out 101,915-seat Neyland Stadium for Vols home games with thousands more on a waiting list — indications are they will. And the school likely has plenty of company at football powerhouses such as Alabama, Georgia, Ohio State and Texas, for starters.
But that fan acceptance also ratchets up the high expectation of hoisting the national championship trophy, or at least of regular appearances in the expanded 12-team College Football Playoff. Not that any of those schools have a problem understanding the assignment.
“Given the landscape of college athletics and today’s economy, I think most fans at the power conference schools will likely be OK with a marginal talent fee or tax like what we’re seeing here because they want to field competitive teams,” said Lamar Reams, department chair and professor of sports administration at Ohio University.
