Tennessee Volunteers Facing Backlash Over Controversial NIL-Era Decision

The Tennessee Volunteers football program is fully leaning into the new NIL era, and it's coming to the detriment of its loyal fanbase.

Tennessee athletic director Danny White has informed season ticket holders that 2025 season tickets will include a minimum 10% "talent fee" in order to assist the program in paying its players.

The average season ticket price increase is expected to be 14.5%.

“We’ve come a long way in the last few years. In this new era, it’s going to get a lot more expensive,” White told Adam Sparks of Knox News. “But there’s also going to be a closer relationship between resources and competition than there ever has been before. And our biggest asset is our fan base.”

Unsurprisingly, this decision has resulted in some serious backlash from college football fans.

"Billion dollar TV deals and the fans are the ones who have to pay the players," one wrote.

"I get wanting to compensate the players through the NIL collective. However, they have already priced an ordinary fan like myself out of the market. Guess I’ll have to sit home and watch it on my 65” tv?" another added.

"Slowly losing the best parts of college football experiences family traditions hang in the balance. Sad," another said.

"People should boycott," another wrote.

"We will continue to grow our other revenue streams and be efficient with our expenses to maximize the anticipated full revenue share allotment," Tennessee said in its statement to season ticket holders. "There has never been a time in college sports where revenue growth had such a close correlation to winning. We strive to equip our coaches with all the resources needed to compete at a championship level and create the best opportunities for Tennessee student-athletes."

Tennessee is 3-0 to start the 2024 season and ranked No. 6 in the AP Poll heading into Week 4. The Volunteers will face off against the No. 15 Oklahoma Sooners in Norman on Saturday night.