Tennessee Preparing Foundation for NIL Pay Model

Vols looking towards future of directly paying athletes

One day, Name, Image and Likeness may pivot away from collectives and pivot toward university-based funding. At least one prominent athletic department is preparing for the possibility.

The University of Tennessee, which earlier this year was dealing with an NCAA investigation in NIL and recruitment, is now preparing to build a non-profit that could play its student-athletes salaries if the need arises.

It’s gotten so much traction, according to the Knoxville News, that the UT Board of Trustees has approved the plan.

It doesn’t mean the Volunteers will pay its own players. It just means that it is preparing for the possibility.

“It’s really an effort to try to be agile and be ready for the coming changes,” Chancellor Donde Plowman said.

The non-profit foundation doesn’t have a name yet. But, in lieu of payments to players, it does have an initial mission, which will be to improve business operation efficiency in Tennessee’s athletic department, which could include the purchase of athletic equipment without the need for a bidding process.

In the long term, the foundation could serve as a way to pay players, as in a model like this athletic programs would likely enter into direct NIL deals with student-athletes as opposed to the current model, which sees deals struck by collectives that in some cases are affiliated with the university.

As for how much players could get paid, the NCAA has a proposal that would require schools to pay at least half their athletes a minimum of $30,000 a year through a trust fund.

The NCAA’s investigation into Tennessee and other schools related to NIL inducements for recruiting is currently suspended after a federal judge granted preliminary injunction on Feb. 23 and suspended the NCAA’s NIL rules.

For now, Tennessee can move forward with plans to pay players — one day.