University of Tennessee men's basketball players participated in a voluntary mock collective bargaining exercise with the school's athletic department and Athletes.org (AO) on Tuesday, offering a potential blueprint for how college athletes could negotiate directly with their institutions. The initiative, led by athletic director Danny White and AO — an organization founded in 2023 to empower college athletes — produced a detailed term sheet covering five pillars: Money & Compensation, Player Movement, Health, Wellness & Time Commitment, Rules & Enforcement, and Academic & Support.
White, who has been Tennessee's AD since 2021, emphasized the value of athlete-centric dialogue. "Collective bargaining is a proven model that works across all of professional sports and, through Athletes.org, athletes can help create a healthy, durable solution for the future of college athletics," he said in a statement. The experiment comes as the NCAA's push for federal antitrust protection via the Protect College Sports Act faces uncertainty in the House of Representatives after the November midterms.
The term sheet, while not legally binding, includes explicit pay-for-play provisions, a salary floor for all roster members (up to 15 in basketball), guaranteed payments despite injury, and extended health insurance covering at least two years post-eligibility, five years for veterans, and lifetime coverage for catastrophic injuries. It also proposes a 15-day transfer portal window opening at least one week after the NCAA championship game.
Three player representatives — graduate student Tyler Lundblade, junior Campbell Duncan, and sophomore DeWayne Brown II — negotiated on behalf of the team. Brown said, "We're the ones living this experience, and our opinions matter. Working through the collective bargaining process has been great, and I hope it's just a stepping stone for more college athletes to replicate our process with their own schools." AO is running a similar experiment with Tennessee's football program.
CBS Sports reported in October that Tennessee is among 11 schools spending over $20 million on men's basketball rosters this season, with the SEC leading conference spending. The exercise demonstrates a possible path forward if federal legislation stalls, though widespread collective bargaining in college sports remains years away due to current legal barriers around employee status.
