With the NCAA settlement almost finalized, we’re moving into a pay-for-play system in college athletics. Universities need to tap all of their revenue sources for funding.
NIL was intended to allow athletes to receive payments via brand endorsements. NIL has been expanded to non-brand endorsements via collectives paying athletes. Though potential NIL earnings are not to be mentioned during recruitment, many winks and nods exist. With the transfer portal, recruitment has expanded from high school athletes to potentially four more years, once after each season.
With the completion of the suit, will athletes become employees of their school? Perhaps, they should have a written employment contract. Current scholarship standards are one year in length. The employment contracts could maintain the same term or expand to multiple years.
As employees, salaries would be taxable, and there could be requirements to pay for housing and tuition from these salaries.
Current scholarship limits will change to roster limits, which is a sticking point in the finalization of the suit. Roster limits will reduce walk-on opportunities.
An athlete could enter the transfer portal at the end of an employment contract when an extension is not negotiated. I wonder how many athletes enter the transfer portal and are not picked up by a school? They really can’t go back to the school they left.
When coaches shop the transfer portal, they send a signal to their current roster that they are not good enough. If coaches spent time developing their high school recruited talent and did not go to the transfer portal, the number of their players going into it might decrease. Coaches who are loyal to their recruits will be rewarded with players who are faithful to them.
Head coaches are evaluated by the number of full seats in their stadium and large audiences viewing on TV and streaming. Full stadiums provide direct ticket sales, parking, and concession revenue. Large TV and streaming audiences provide more lucrative time slots. In future years, media rights revenue will be distributed proportionally to the number of viewers. A coach’s only tool is putting an entertaining team on the field, not necessarily winning or competitive, just entertaining enough to keep the audience engaged and viewing.
Part of the entertainment value for me when watching UVA football is the intelligent execution of the players and coaches. With high academic standards, I want to watch plays and schemes that represent the brain power of the participants.
The rest of the game day experience is out of the coaches’ control. Reducing wait times for anything from parking to concessions to bathrooms to stadium access will keep people coming back to enjoy why they attended.
Trying to generate more revenue, UVA has instituted new required minimum donations when purchasing priority section season tickets. The contributions are made to the Virginia Athletic Foundation. This organization funds all of the athletic scholarships at the university. It will probably need to fund pay-for-play requirements.
In the past, a minimum donation of $100 was required to purchase two season tickets. Higher donations were eligible for more seats. For example, a $7500 minimum donation is needed to get eight tickets. These minimums applied to all sections.
For 2025, section 125 on the home side 50-yard line requires a minimum of $7500, 40-yard line ($5000). 30-yard line ($1750). Visitor side in the sun is cheaper at $5000, $3500, and $1750.
Seat selection is based on priority points. Each person with a current year donation or pledge will have accumulated priority points based on many criteria, including current year donation, lifetime donations, and consecutive years donating. In the George Welsh and Al Groh years, there were over 9000 donors with points. At this time, there are 4677 people with points. There has not been a sellout since Al Groh stepped down.
Renewing season ticket holders may keep the same seats as the previous year. Starting toward the end of April, an online seat selection process is executed. All renewing and new season ticket holders are assigned a start time to change or select seats. Priority points are used to determine the time slots. The person with the most points gets to choose first. This year, I was 2360th on the list, and my time slot started on the seventh selection day.
This year is my eleventh as a season ticket holder, six years were before starting RTU. It was unrealistic to continue attending games when I worked every Saturday and Sunday in the fall. Through my RTU years, I continued my VAF donations, starting at $100 in 2009 and increasing by 10% yearly to get more points. In 2020, I purchased season tickets. But that year, COVID emptied the stadiums.
By 2021, with my donation of around $300, I got tickets seven rows from the field in Section 123. I guess many people avoided the COVID crowds. In 2022, the seventh row in Section 125 was available as part of the seat selection process. I jumped on the opportunity. No seats were available in Section 125 at my designated time for the following two years.
Now in 2025, 10% of the seats are available in Section 125. I maintained my 2024 donation amount plus 10% (being grandfathered is good). So, I can keep my seats. However, if I want to move to different seats in Section 125 or buy more seats anywhere in the stadium, I need to increase my donation to $7500. Oh well.
I don’t remember seeing as many open seats during the selection process. Here are the five higher donation sections on the home side. I wonder about the elasticity of the new process. Green Seats are available.
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How will they sell the seats? Will a donation be required if they are single-game or part of a mini-plan? Will the seats go unsold?
I always knew parking in the lots adjacent to the stadium required a donation of at least $3000. It’s up to $7500 for some lots.
Now I question, is the current product on the field good enough to fill the empty seats that cost more than ever?
I know each fan’s desired experience differs. Maybe it’s not the game itself. It could be all the other parts of the circus.
In early March, the athletic department formed a fan council to meet monthly and review the product. I’ve yet to hear of any recommended changes.
I am disappointed with student attendance. Their cost to attend is zero. They should support their fellow classmates. With the new model, will the students see the players as classmates?