Tennessee basketball’s mock CBA offers glimpse into college sports’ future

College athletics has spent the past several years trying to figure out how to operate like a professional sports business without actually becoming one.

Players are getting paid. Schools are navigating revenue-sharing agreements. Athletic departments are searching for new revenue streams. And lawmakers are attempting to regulate an ever-changing industry.

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Now, the University of Tennessee men’s basketball team is offering another possible piece of the puzzle.

Tennessee players, working with Athletes.org, released a proposed collective bargaining term sheet Tuesday after months of discussions with the school’s athletic department. The exercise wasn’t intended to create a binding agreement. Instead, it was designed to show what a formal relationship between college athletes and their schools could look like.

The men’s team elected Tyler Lundblade, Campbell Duncan and DeWayne Brown II to work with the college players’ union on the proposal. Negotiations stretched across August and September before both sides finalized terms on October 1.

The proposal could offer a glimpse into where college athletics is headed, particularly as Congress considers new legislation and schools like Utah continue exploring different financial models.

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It addresses everything from player compensation and health care to transfer rules and offseason commitments.

Among its more notable provisions are a salary cap and spending floor, guaranteed compensation for injured players, postseason bonuses, additional medical coverage and mutually agreed-upon transfer portal rules.

It would also replace the current patchwork of revenue-sharing payments and university-affiliated NIL deals with a universal athletic services agreement that compensates athletes for playing their sports rather than completing promotional obligations.

In other words, it attempts to create something college athletics has largely avoided: a more structured system in which players have a direct voice in determining the…

Source link : https://sports.yahoo.com/articles/tennessee-basketball-mock-cba-offers-233229786.html

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Publish date : 2026-11-11 23:32:00

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