Tennessee Starts "Talent Tax" Oklahoma State Fans Should Expect to Kick In

STILLWATER – The University of Tennessee announced it on Tuesday. All tickets in all sports at Tennessee will pay an extra 10 percent in the future to help with the costs of paying athletes through the revenue sharing portion of the still being finalized House vs. NCAA settlement. Yes, Federal Judge Claudia Wilken threw the outlined settlement back at the attorneys for both sides to find a way to include (not exclude) collectives in the settlement. That is not the issue here. The issue is how are schools going to pay for an estimated $23 million in revenue sharing with athletes that will go up annually?

Bruce Waterfield/OSU Athletics

Boone Pickens Stadium doesn’t seat as many and tickets generally don’t cost as much.

This was Tennessee and athletic director Danny White’s early step. The 10 percent addition will be on tickets sold to all home sporting events for the Vols and Lady Vols. There will be an additional 4.5 percent on all football tickets. 

Talking to multiple sources inside the Oklahoma State athletic department, the belief inside Gallagher-Iba Arena and the West End Zone is that the House vs. NCAA settlement will go through. The NCAA can’t afford the likely financial burden of a decision in court. The same sources say that Oklahoma State is monitoring the moves such as the one made by the University of Tennessee and will continue to monitor and explore options to create the kind of financial increase that it will take to remain competitive.

Jim Dedmon-Imagn Images

Mississippi hammered Wake Forest 40-6 in what turns out will be the only meeting.

Along those lines Wake Forest University, a private school in the Power Four Atlantic Coast Conference, hosted Mississippi in a the first of a home-and-home non conference football series last Saturday losing to Mississippi 40-6. While winning coach Lane Kiffin was in his locker room telling the media that he had to thank his collective for the money paid to bolster the Rebels defense, in the other locker room Deacons head coach Dave Clawson was explaining why his school had informed Mississippi that they were going to pay the penalty in the contract and not play the second scheduled game for Oxford, Miss. 

ESPN is reporting that Wake Forest has now replaced the game scheduled next season at Mississippi with a home and home series with Pac-12 survivor Oregon State. They had also reproted that Wake Forest had been working with Ole Miss for the past several years to move the next year’s game without coming to an agreement.

Kiffin brags about his collective and what Mississippi players are making through NIL (pay-for-play). The number commonly put on Mississippi’s player pay roll is $25 million. Wake Forest claims their roster is getting roughly $3.5 million

"We are committed to making decisions that best serve our program and our student-athletes, and that includes bringing national games to Winston-Salem," Currie said in a statement released by the school. "We have a high degree of respect for Ole Miss and their fans, and we congratulate them on their victory last weekend in sold-out Allegacy Stadium. But given the ongoing financial pressures of the new era of college athletics and our priority on continuing to grow resources to benefit our student-athletes, it was the right business decision to secure this two-game home-and-home series with Oregon State, and cancel the planned game in Oxford next year."

One source we spoke to at Oklahoma State said that OSU fans would need to understand that the price of doing business at the level of college athletics they are accustomed to and want to see their teams continue to compete against is going up. There will be revenue sharing and collectives are going to survive, but most, if not all, will be brought in under athletic department supervision. 

Pat Kinnison - Chief Photographer

Oklahoma State has often outplayed more rich competition like Arkansas that spends an extra $67 million more on athletics than Oklahoma State.

“We want our fans to continue to enjoy these athletic events at a reasonable price, but it will cost more,” one source told Pokes Report. “Our coaches and athletes need a fair amount in order to compete, but there will be schools on our schedule that we won’t be able to match. We will need to continue to succeed more with less. Oklahoma State has always done that. Everyone needs to understand that less has to be more than it used to be.”

I own season tickets. In fact, I moved into the new chairback seats on the South Side of Boone Pickens Stadium. I’m told the seats are excellent. I sat in them for a scrimmage in fall camp. I’ll pay more as in 10-15 percent more. I understand what we are dealing with. We continue to have an NIL Journalist with Kobe Hylton and pay him for his contribution. 

Overall, Oklahoma State football season tickets in 2024 started for as low as $400. I pay closer to $800 per seat. Colorado starts at $512 and Ohio State starts at $517.

Oklahoma State is fortunate to have a lot of suites and those run from a low of $55,000 per year to a high of $126,000 depending on size. Suites for bowl games can range from $35,000 to $75,000 for just that one game. The College Football Playoff cite costs of suites at the National Championship Game ranging from $20,000 to $120,000.

Oklahoma State is scheduled over the next several seasons against Oregon (2025 and 2026) and Alabama (2028 and 2029). Mike Gundy and his staff know those two schools spend five times or more than what Oklahoma State does in NIL. When this comes under control you have to have a bigger bank roll, but knowing that you can’t match the competition you have to be smart and equipped to do more with less. 

That has long been a staple of Oklahoma State athletics.