KNOXVILLE, Tenn. — Friday, the University of Tennessee Board of Trustees pushed forward with plans for a nonprofit for the athletics department.
The UT Athletics Foundation would help cut some red tape preventing teams from meeting immediate needs. Similar foundations exist at other SEC schools.
UT Chancellor Donde Plowman gave an example, saying if weight room equipment were to break, the athletic department could pay to replace it with money in the fund that comes from ticket sales, donations and sponsorships through Tennessee Athletics.
"We don't have to function all the time like a big state agency," Plowman said. "There's no state dollars in the athletic department. It's all money they get from tickets, from sponsorships, from donations. Some of that can be housed in this foundation to help them better business operations."
The other benefit of the foundation is it could be a gateway to help pay athletes a salary, through revenue sharing.
"One of the things that the NCAA and the conferences have negotiated with the plaintiff's lawyer in the house suit is if it's approved, we will probably be sharing revenues with student-athletes," Plowman said.
The university has been hinting at this for a while, but nothing is set in stone yet.
"We don't know yet enough about how we're going to do that," Plowman said. "Could this entity help us with that? It might, we don't know exactly yet, but we want to be ready and prepared."
However, one barrier to that effort, which has already started through a 10% 'talent fee' going to athletes from 2025 football tickets, is ongoing litigation with the NCAA.
"One of the things we also are trying to navigate is the changing lance changing legal landscape," UT System President Randy Boyd said. "Things are changing daily at times. And with this new foundation, it'll allow them to be better able to adapt to the changes."