Tennessee AD Danny White wants permanent solutions not patchwork fixes
NASHVILLE — Tennessee, the self-proclaimed everything school, is rolling along. The Vols are coming an Elite 8 run in basketball, both baseball and softball along with four other spring sports are in the top 10 nationally.
It’s pretty good these days in the world of big orange athletics under the leadership of Danny White.
“In my chair, everything’s important all the time,” White said. “And it has to be. All 20 of our sports are important. NIL is important. Building buildings is important. We have $499 million worth of capital projects going on right now. It’s all important. But we have a generous donor base. We have great high-end, top leadership donors. We have an enormous amount of fans. We’re going to announce tomorrow our stadium sold out again with 15,000 strong on the waiting list while people around the country are trying to figure out how to make their stadiums smaller. We’re 102,000 strong and sold out for the season. So we’re fortunate at Tennessee to have what I believe to be the best fanbase in sport. We could prioritize everything and that’s exactly what we’re doing.”
However for White life as the athletic leader of an SEC institution is not without stress. While like on Rocky Top may be good, concern for the direction of college athletics in general is worrisome and in ways frustrating.
Earlier this week reports said that the NCAA has visions of revenue sharing for athletes (up to 20 million dollars) in hopes of trying to settle the House vs. NCAA case that’s set to go to trail in 2025.
Tuesday White and the Tennessee brass were in Nashville for the Big Orange Caravan stop as well as a private donor reception. White met with the media a the caravan stop and was asked around revenue sharing and he made it clear it’s time for real solutions to problems that should have been addressed over the last couple of decades.
“I think I figured I may get that question. I was thinking about that on the way here today. I liken it to, if I had a crack in my foundation at my house. I think it’s unfortunate over the last couple decades, just watching this thing play out, we’ve several times tried to put some Spackle on the crack and maybe hope somebody else solves it in the future and we’ve got to stop doing that,” White stated. “I hope that we really take a deep look and solve this thing with some real issue, real structural issues. We obviously have some legal issues in college sports. There are real solutions and we need to sprint to them as quickly as possible. At Tennessee, we’re always going to do right by student-athletes. And there’s ways to do right by student-athletes and get this thing organized. Because it’s a little bit out of control right now, as we all realize.
“I think there’s people in critical leadership positions in college sports that didn’t act over the last couple decades and I hope that that they do now.”
Earlier this year, the SEC and Big 10 created a working partnership to lead the way on the issues they face.
“We’re going to try to take that responsibility of leadership and see if we can develop some ideas that can help us,” SEC Commissioner Greg Sankey said.
White is hopeful that the two biggest, most profitable conferences can help create solutions not just ideas to preserve the the core of what makes college athletics different than any other sports leagues
“These are complex issues. Obviously we are one conference amongst many, but we certainly have probably the biggest voice, if not one of the just a couple biggest voices. But we need strong leadership right now across the country in college sports. We got to find a more stable environment that allows kids to experience what I think is really special,” White stated. “I talked about earlier the value of college sports. It’s so valuable from a university’s perspective and alumni’s perspective, but it is so valuable from a student-athlete experience perspective. These kids, we had our Rocky Top Royale last night. It’s our celebration where we give awards to all of our student-athletes. We talk about graduation rates, we talk about how great they’re doing in the classroom, their leadership with their teams, the experience they get on a campus and developing and making the most of themselves as a person, as a student, as an athlete. It’s magical. It’s really powerful. And if we don’t get this thing organized, we could do some damage to what I think is a pretty special environment.”
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