Tennessee AD negotiated mock collective bargaining agreement with Vols basketball team
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The Protect College Sports Act once seemed destined to make it through Congress. Midterm elections have potentially changed its fate. As a result, schools may need to find a different way to establish the spending limit they so greatly desire. Enter, collective bargaining. At the University of Tennessee, at least.
On Tuesday, On3’s Andy Staples reported Vol athletic director Danny White and Tennessee’s men’s basketball team negotiated a mock CBA earlier this year. The process, in White’s opinion, was illuminating.
“It’s not that scary,” White remarked. “The players want a lot of the same things everyone else wants.”
As part of the mock agreement, White and the men’s basketball team agreed on a hard salary cap and salary floor, postseason revenue sharing, transfer portal timeframes, a legal tampering window, “strict, defined” eligibility rules and harsh penalties for those breaking the caps. They also came to terms on a freshman pay scale.
“We wanted incentives for older guys to stay in college and have access to a veteran pool of money,” guard Tyler Lundblade, one of the team representatives, said. “Freshmen have to come in and prove themselves the way a rookie would have to prove himself in the NFL or NBA or MLB.”
White intends on going through a similar process with Tennessee’s football team. Athletes.org helped educate players on the collective bargaining process and published the Volunteers’ mock term sheet online. Tennessee basketball hosts Tennessee State on Friday night (7:00 p.m. ET).
