Tennessee

Tennessee’s 10% NIL Ticket Surcharge is Insulting to Volunteer Fans

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2 hours ago

September 17, 2024

Tennessee’s 10% NIL Ticket Surcharge is Insulting to Volunteer Fans

University of Tennessee Athletic Director Danny White recently announced that the university is implementing a new 10% surcharge on ticket prices for the upcoming 2025-2026 season. The strategic move comes in response to potential NIL revenue sharing for college athletes that could arrive as early as next season and cost the most prominent schools roughly $22,000,000 annually –– White has aptly monikered the new cost a “talent fee.” The “talent fee” implicates both single-game and season ticket sales and will complement the projected average 4.5% increase in ticket sales at Neyland Stadium in the coming year.

This is enough for Volunteer fans to revolt. In an interview with On3 White stated “It’s going to our student athletes as part of this new world order in college sports. So I know our fans will embrace it.” I’d think twice about the embrace of a price hike on fans who have seen nothing but constantly increasing ticket costs. After begging fans to donate hard-earned money to their NIL collective for the last three years, the Volunteer Athletic Department also wants those same fans to subsidize their athlete payment costs. How far can Volunteer administration expect fans to stretch their wallets?

Power 5 colleges have gotten away with not paying their on-field talent while often raking in over nine figures annually from media rights partnerships, donations, ticket sales, and licensing fees. In the 2022-23 academic year, the Volunteers athletic department generated $202,097,305 in revenue –– this was before the 2024 SEC media deal that now entitles Tennessee and every other SEC program to an extra $15,000,000 in media rights payments every year. You can see the full financial breakdown of every public university here.

The NCAA system that restricts direct athlete payment has allowed schools in big-time conferences to rake in money without ever having to pay their talent –– in the professional sports landscape players and owners hover around a 50-50 split in revenue. The proposed NCAA direct NIL payout of $22,000,000 is closer to a 90-10 split in favor of ownership when looking at Tennessee’s 2022-23 revenues.

For so long, college athlete labor exploitation has allowed power conference athletic departments to have tremendous bloat — unnecessary expenditures in personnel, facilities, and inflated coaching and administrative salaries are pervasive around campuses. Most power conference schools are public, meaning they have a “use it or lose it” mentality. There are no shareholders at public institutions like Tennessee; if the Vols were to experience a year with an incredible profit margin, no institutional shareholder would be directly richer for it.

In practice, that means that every dollar the athletic department earns should be spent. In 2023, Tennessee spent over $191,000,000 in athletic expenditures. The restriction of athlete payment and lack of profit incentives have made college sports economics wonky. It is the reason why twelve offensive coordinators in the college ranks are making over $1,000,000 in 2024. It is also why so many power conference football locker rooms have price tags above $100,000,000 – below is a rendering of the recent $30,000,000 upgrade to Tennessee’s locker room.

Prioritizing the student-athlete experience.
Unveiling the approved plans for a $30 million upgrade and expansion of the current 145,000-square-foot Anderson Training Center — the home of Tennessee Football.
— Tennessee Football (@Vol_Football) November 11, 2021

Yes, non-revenue athletic programs hemorrhage money. The rational reader would point out that if you want to fix the budget, the best move is to cut these programs, which have become increasingly costly in an era of non-geographical conference realignment. That would be a fair argument, but in a purely revenue-driven collegiate sports landscape, why have such a large revenue split discrepancy from the industry standard?

The 90-10 revenue split in favor of ownership accounts for the subsidies necessary for non-revenue and Olympic sports programs to be supported through football and basketball. In a system that is truly profit motivated a 50-50 revenue split seen from every large American sporting league would be expected. A school like Tennessee would be on the hook for $100,000,000 and not $22,000,000 annually for athlete payment — meaning a lot more belt-tightening and a lot more loss of opportunity.

Danny White made $2,310,000 in 2023, and the entire athletic administration, excluding coaches, made a total of $36,040,365. Tennessee coaching salaries in 2023 totaled $34,916,833: Josh Heupel made $9,000,000; Rick Barnes made $5,700,000; Women’s basketball coach Kellie Harper made $1,100,000; and Defensive Coordinator Tim Banks made $1,500,000. White is asking hard-working Tennessee fans to pay 14.5% more in ticket prices so his salary can continue to climb and he can maintain a bloated athletic department.

The $15,000,000 increase in media rights payment is shockingly left out of SEC stakeholders’ messaging when discussing the “rapidly evolving landscape of college sports.” Schools in the Big Ten earn roughly $40,000,000 more annually from their new giant media rights contract, yet continue to message that they NEED more money to survive in the new landscape –– where did those dollars go?

The NCAA has opened opportunities for schools to generate new revenue streams to prepare for the additional costs of athlete payment. Many schools have quickly cashed in on the NCAA’s removal of prior restrictions against on-field sponsorships. Tennessee has inked a new multi-year deal with Pilot, including on-field sponsorship, which is expected to bring substantial funding.

There are plenty of ways athletic departments can cut costs and generate revenue to offset potential athlete NIL revenue share payments. Passing the buck to those wanting to attend games is a selfish and tone-deaf move to preserve the opulent spending within Tennessee’s athletic department.

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Tennessee

Just how diverse is Tennessee? See how the Volunteer State ranks compared to other U.S. states

Published

10 hours ago

September 17, 2024

Press Room

Just how diverse is Tennessee? See how the Volunteer State ranks compared to other U.S. states

A new report has just revealed the most and least diverse states in the country. According to WalletHub, California, Texas and Florida rank as the nation’s most diverse states, while New Hampshire, West Virginia and Maine rank as the least diverse. Tennessee landed among the middle, ranking as the 27th (65.11/100) most diverse state.

While Tennessee did rank in the top or bottom, the state has experienced an over 10% increase in diversity between 2010-2020, according to the latest data from the United States Census Bureau. In 2020, the Volunteer State’s Diversity Index reached 46.6%, a 17.1% increase from 39.8% in 2010.

That figure is only expected to rise, as the state is projected to become even more racially and ethnically diverse by 2040 when the state is projected to be home to eight million residents, according to research from the University of Tennessee Knoxville.

Beyond racial diversity, WalletHub also analyzed states’ economic, religious and political diversity.

“Race and gender are probably the first things that come to mind when people think about diversity, but there’s plenty more that makes this nation diverse,” said WalletHub analyst Chip Lupo. “The most diverse states have above-average variety when it comes to people’s ages, birthplaces, languages, jobs, family structures and more. Moving to a diverse state can be an extremely enriching experience as it exposes you to new ideas and new ways of living.”

Which Tennessee cities grew the most? See how population shifted according to the U.S. Census

How has Tennessee’s diversity changed within a decade?

Between 2010 and 2020, Tennessee experienced an 8.9% increase in population, or an additional 564,735 more residents. During that same time frame, the following groups experienced the highest population increases:

Some other race alone or in combination (260,000)
Hispanic or Latino (189,128)
American Indian or Alaska Native alone or in combination (106,562)
Black/African American alone or in combination (88,936)

The white alone (68,990), Asian alone (65,285) and Native Hawaiian or other Pacific Islander alone or in combination (3,233) populations experienced the lowest increases.

The most diverse states in the country, according to WalletHub

California (70.77/100)
Texas (70.48/100)
Florida (69.88/100)
New Mexico (69.83/100)
Hawaii (69.77/100)
Nevada (69.72/100)
New Jersey (69.71/100)
New York (69.62/100
Maryland (69.12/100)
Arizona (69.10/100)

The least diverse states in the country, according to WalletHub

Wisconsin (63.45/100)
North Dakota (63.42/100)
Utah (63.27/100)
Iowa (62.88)
Wyoming (62.81/100)
Kentucky (62.63/100)
Montana (62.15/100)
Vermont (61.51/100)
New Hampshire (60.42/100)
Maine (60.10/100)
West Virginia (59.72/100)

Methodology

In order to determine the most and least diverse states in the country, WalletHub compared the 50 states across six dimensions: socio-economic diversity (20 total points), cultural diversity (20 total points), economic diversity (20 total points), household diversity (20 total points), religious diversity (10 total points), and political diversity (10 total points).

WalletHub then evaluated those dimensions using 14 metrics, which include:

Household-income diversity (13.33 points)
Educational-attainment diversity (6.67 points)
Racial and ethnic diversity (10 points)
Linguistic diversity (6.67 points)
Birthplace diversity (3.33 points)
Industry diversity (12 points)
Occupational diversity (4 points)
Worker-class diversity (4 points)
Marital-status diversity (5 points)
Generational diversity (5 points)
Household-type diversity (5 points)
Household size diversity (5 points)
Religious diversity (10 points)
Political diversity (10 points)

Each metric was graded on a 100-point scale. Each state’s weighted average was then determined across all metrics to calculate its overall score and the resulting scores were used to rank-order the states. A total score of 100 represents the most diverse state.

Diana Leyva covers trending news and service journalism for The Tennessean. Contact her at Dleyva@gannett.com or follow her on X, the platform formerly known as Twitter, at @_leyvadiana

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Tennessee

Packers vs Titans Week 3 Opening Odds: Why is Tennessee favored?

Published

17 hours ago

September 17, 2024

Press Room

Packers vs Titans Week 3 Opening Odds: Why is Tennessee favored?

For the first time in recent years, the Green Bay Packers are on the winning end of the classic barroom discussion of “We got beat by THAT guy?!” In his 4th ever start, Malik Willis completed 85.7% of his passes for a 126.8 passer rating and a VERY respectable 10.14 ANY/A. For reference, those marks are similar to Aaron Rodgers vs. the Titans in Dec 2020.

All that to say…according to FanDuel, the Packers open as the 2.5-point underdogs going into Nashville to take on the Tennessee Titans. This is to be expected. Malik will likely start the game, and his body of work just hasn’t seen a consistent level of play that would give someone the impression he’s more than a backup, last week notwithstanding.

Should Jordan Love be cleared and start, expect the line to flip. The Packers would likely end up as 3-point favorites if last week’s line is any indication.

The over/under for the game is 36.5, which is abysmally low in today’s NFL. The average o/u would be a full 10 points higher than that. The sportsbooks don’t seem to think either team will light it up on the scoreboard.

Malik Willis is going into the stadium of the team that got rid of him in favor of Mason Rudolf. Will Willis’ will be enough to win against Will Levis, or will Willis leave with Levis as the victor?

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Tennessee

Josh Heupel Speaks With The Media On Returning To Norman, Oklahoma

Published

1 day ago

September 16, 2024

Press Room

Josh Heupel Speaks With The Media On Returning To Norman, Oklahoma

The Tennessee Vols head coach will be returning to his Alma mater on Saturday as he is set to take on the newly added SEC team in the Oklahoma Sooners. The former Heisman contending QB and current undefeated and top 10 ranked head coach Josh Heupel would take time to talk about this during his pre-Oklahoma presser on Monday.

“It’ll be unique,” Heupel said. “I had teammates and friends back there. They hit me up a little bit early. They were starting last week already. It’ll be unique going back into that stadium. It’s going to be a viewpoint, I’m not sure I’ve ever spent a day on the opposing sideline inside of that stadium, not even for a scrimmage. So it’ll be different, but it’s one that I’m really looking forward to. There’s so many people that have been a huge part of my journey that I get a chance to go back and hopefully get a chance to say hi to a bunch of them. You know, it starts with teammates. It’s coaches that I had. It’s a lot of coaches that I coached with. There’s a lot of personnel that’s still there, guys that I coached, guy that was in my wedding. There’s a lot of people back there that I’m familiar with and have a lot of respect for,” the returning star stated in his presser.

This will be the first game in conference play for the Vols this season and they currently sit as 7-point favorites ahead of the college gameday headline game of the week!

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