Tennessee Is Adding a 10 Percent 'Talent Fee' to the Cost of Football Tickets Starting Next Year To Offset the Cost of Revenue Sharing

It had been a couple weeks since everybody lost their mind about something in relation to college athletes getting paid, so we were due for a story like this. Some people are very upset at the news that Tennessee — and soon to be dozens of other schools — will be implementing a "talent fee" to help cover the cost of the estimated $25-30 million per year associated with revenue sharing to be implemented next year.

Does this suck for Tennessee fans? Sure. But if you thought university athletic departments were going to sit idly by and just accept an additional cost of $30 million a year without doing anything about it, I have some beachfront property in Nebraska to sell you. And if you believe in the free market, Tennessee will see its ticket sales go down if enough people are unwilling to pay this 10 percent increase. But there are going to be plenty of people willing to pay it, which is why it's being instituted.

I don't really understand why UT made a big deal out of announcing this to begin with, though. They could have waited until the Vols potentially make the College Football Playoff this season, raised season ticket prices by 10 percent next year and nobody would have batted an eye. I guess Danny White thinks this makes him look like a "leader in revenue sharing", but it really just created a story for no reason.

Yes, it sucks that the price of tickets is going up. But if you win, nobody cares. If White and Josh Heupel keep things rolling the way they are now, people will pay whatever you tell them to.