BOULDER — George Solich doesn’t hate the players. But he’s starting to hate the game.
“I think college football is in an odd situation,” the CU grad and longtime Buffs booster told me recently. “It’s a very odd, difficult state right now, with the NILs being the wild, wild West. It’s kind of like ‘farm club’ football. I think it’s very difficult to see where it’s going.”
I’ll tell you exactly where it’s going: Straight to Solich’s checkbook. And straight into the bank accounts of every CU fan or booster who wants to keep a toehold on the Coach Prime Gravy Train.
Tennessee announced it’s adding a 10% “talent fee” surcharge to its 2025 tickets, which is university code for “paying players directly.”
Arkansas athletic director Hunter Yurachek last month told the Little Rock Touchdown Club that the football program needs at least $12 million in NIL money each year to remain competitive with their SEC peers.
Michigan increased per-game season-ticket prices by 6.5% for 2024, its first price hike since 2021, citing “continued success and sustainability of our football program and future athletic operations.”
Where is this going?
Straight to your wallet.
“We’ve got to find some revenue streams that we may not have today,” CU athletic director Rick George noted earlier this week. “I do think we will look different as we move forward … you can’t do it all in revenue generation. You’ve got to make some cuts in your expenditures. And we will certainly be looking at all of that.”
Want to know why George and new CU chancellor Justin Schwartz might move Heaven and Earth to keep Deion Sanders happy? We’ll give you at least 14 million reasons.
CU athletics told Front Office Sports last October that season ticket revenue was up $14 million since Coach Prime’s hiring in December 2022. The university announced last year that Buff Club donations were up $8 million over 2022.
The combination of Sanders with stars such as Heisman Trophy contender Travis Hunter and quarterback Shedeur Sanders, both of whom should be among the top 10 players selected in the 2025 NFL Draft, has made CU football one of the hottest tickets in Colorado again.
The Buffs’ prime-time showdown with No. 18 Kansas State late Saturday night was CU’s second straight sellout of Folsom Field and the third on the books. Not too shabby for a 2024 home slate that features North Dakota State (which didn’t sell out, but still drew 49,438), Baylor, K-State, Cincinnati, Utah and Oklahoma State.
Moreover, it’s the eighth sellout in nine home games since Sanders’ debut win at TCU. An Oct. 26 Family Weekend date vs. the Bearcats is also sold out, while only single tickets remain for November tilts at Folsom against Utah (Nov. 16) and Oklahoma State (Nov. 29).
Last fall, with Nebraska, CSU and USC visiting, the Buffs sold out Folsom over an entire season for the first time in CU history.
“We don’t have any premium inventory in basketball. We need to create some,” George continued. “We need to create more premium inventory in our football stadium to be able to grow that revenue. So we’ll be looking at all those things holistically as we look to what our future looks like.”
What’s it going to look like?
Price hikes. Talent fees. Surcharges.
“It’s all about NILs,” Solich said. “What have you created? You’ve created no allegiance. You’ve created no team environment. You’ve created no earning it.”
Sanders, who earned $5.5 million last season, is probably underpaid relative to the revenue and exposure he’s brought to CU. The university gave Coach Prime a “discretionary bonus” last December of $250,000 for becoming the tide that raised everybody’s boats, but there’s more work to do on that front. After the 2025 season, a clause in Sanders’ contract kicks in that opens up a window in which either side may request changes to the deal for things such as salary or benefits.
Plus, student-athletes are about to get paid by athletic departments. If Michigan and Tennessee are harbingers of what’s to come, CU may well look to pass some of that cost onto its customers.
The $2.8 billion settlement in the House v. NCAA lawsuit earlier this month got preliminary approval from Judge Claudia Wilken. As a result, universities could start sharing revenue with players as soon as the 2025-26 fiscal year.
“The support that we can provide all of our programs is going to be incumbent on the revenue that we can generate,” George continued. “And we know there are certain streams (with which) we can do that.
“You may see more concerts that we do (at Folsom) because that’s another revenue stream for us that we need. But we’re going to be very creative in how we look at the whole landscape of college athletics.”
Wish him luck. Oklahoma State tried getting cute by putting QR code stickers on players’ helmets, with those codes linking straight to a link to donate to a team fund. The NCAA blocked that gambit, declaring the decals to be impermissible advertisements or commercial marks.
The Vols’ “talent tax,” though?
Look for that one to stick. And spread.
“Look, I’m just not one for ‘Pay to Play.’ I’m not,” Solich said. “I think we’ll figure out this divide here at (the college level). I just don’t think the answer is, ‘Pay for everything and buy everything. And give everything.’
“(But) I think it’ll work its way out. I really do.”
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