How we projected Tennessee football player pay
Revenue sharing, or direct school-to-play pay, begins July 1. It opens up a new income stream for college athletes.
UT hasn’t disclosed how it will spend an estimated $20.5 million in capped revenue that it can pay to its athletes. But these reasonable assumptions help create a projection.Exactly how much money each player receives won’t be public knowledge. Schools don’t want media and fans to have access to their payroll because it could invite scrutiny and stir up disputes in locker rooms.
That’s why Tennessee lawmakers have been preparing legislation that would keep secret that public money paid to college athletes, and other states are doing the same. And coaches often tell players not to discuss how much money they earn, either in school revenue or name, image and likeness benefits.
But there are ways to calculate reasonable estimatesLike many power conference schools, UT is expected to count $2.5 million toward new scholarships in increased roster limits, dropping its player payroll to $18 million.
Most SEC schools will allocate approximately 75% of that cap, or $13.5 million, to football players. That percentage is prescribed as a baseline in the House v. NCAA settlement that ushered in revenue sharing. That means if all 81 UT scholarship players are paid revenue, they would receive about $167,000 each. But schools don’t have to allocate revenue to every player, or even most players, on their roster.
Revenue sharing is direct school-to-player pay. But UT will continue its robust NIL fund, where players receive additional money from third parties like businesses, boosters and fans in a collective. Athletes can earn NIL pay in addition to their school revenue, if those deals are approved by a new NIL clearinghouse.
