Tennessee will be spending more money on its athletes in the 2025-26 school year. You can be sure of that.
But you can’t be sure exactly how revenue will be shared among athletes in the various sports. Eventually, a judge might have the final say-so.
Based on the House settlement, much of the shared revenue among college athletes will go to football. That’s understandable because it produces the most revenue
The Lady Vols know how serious Texas Tech is about softball. UT All-SEC and second-team All-America infielder Taylor Pannell announced June 12 she was headed for Lubbock, Texas. The Red Raiders have added two other All-Americans via the transfer portal.
Texas Tech also won 28 games in men’s basketball and had national champion Florida on the ropes with three minutes to play before losing in the Elite Eight.. And 247Sports ranked the Red Raiders transfer-portal haul in football second only to LSU’s
How much of UT’s NIL wealth would it spend on Pickens? If you just said, “But it’s only softball,” you are behind the times.
Texas Tech lured pitcher NiJaree Canady from Stanford by paying her slightly more than $1 million for the 2025 season. She responded by pitching the Red Raiders into their first WCWS
Two words sum up Texas Tech’s sports rise: Oil money.
The last time I checked, UT wasn’t pumping oil from beneath its campus but repeatedly has proved itself in NIL competition. I don’t expect that to change.
But the Vols can strive to be more strategic in their yearly spending
