Tennessee Capitalizing on NIL With ‘Talent Fee’ on 2025 Season Tickets

The University of Tennessee is adding a 10% “talent fee” to its 2025 season tickets for football, the program announced to its season ticket holders by e-mail on Tuesday. The new talent fee cost will be used to pay its players through Name, Image and Likeness (NIL).

The 10% talent fee added to the season tickets is part of a 14.5% price hike overall for 2025 season tickets. Tennessee athletic director Danny White told season ticket-holders with an accompanying video that it’s the price of doing business in the upcoming revenue sharing era in college athletics, which will add to player compensation.

“We’ve come a long way in the last few years,” White told Adam Sparks of the Knoxville News Sentinel. “In this new wea, it’s going to get a lot more expensive. 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.”