NCAA research is increasingly given a role by booster groups

The NCAA is investigating the University of Tennessee football program for possible recruiting violations involving a booster group, in a significant escalation of efforts to rein in the rapidly growing role of outside money in college sports, according to people familiar with the matter .

The investigation focuses in part on the use of a private jet by a so-called donor collective to fly a high-profile recruit — now the school's starting quarterback — to campus while the university was courting him.

If the booster group made the quarterback, Nico Iamaleava, pay for the trip, it would be a violation of NCAA rules. The investigation comes after the NCAA sanctioned Tennessee for several recruiting violations and signals the NCAA's growing concerns about the size and influence of money injected into college sports by donor collectives.

The case could have profound implications for the direction of high-profile programs across the country, especially in football, where outside money raised by collectives and paid out to players has reshaped the economics of college athletics. News of the investigation into Tennessee's athletics program was first reported by Sports Illustrated.

Tennessee officials are deeply concerned that the investigation could result in a devastating blow to the school's football program, according to a person briefed on the matter. The program is already on probation for its past recruiting violations, and school officials are concerned the NCAA could take drastic action, such as banning the team from postseason play and disqualifying players.

Considering this possibility, the school has hired several law firms and is considering a range of legal options to avoid any potential consequences.

At the heart of the research are donor collectives, which are organized groups of alumni and other drivers who donate money to support teams. They have become a major and growing force in college sports in recent years by utilizing a new system created to allow players to take advantage of endorsements, known as “name-image-likeness deals” or NIL .

Collectives are increasingly ensuring that athletes are paid amounts comparable to what professionals earn. Iamaleava, the Tennessee quarterback, has a deal with the school collective that could be worth $8 million. After playing a limited role for most of last season, he became the team's starter in the Citrus Bowl on New Year's Day, leading Tennessee to a 35-0 victory over Iowa.

At many Division I schools, collectives, while not technically affiliated with the universities they support, have become closely integrated into high school recruiting and, in an era when athletes can easily transfer from one school to another in search of better opportunities, in offering lucrative deals to retain star players.

The NCAA has set rules for these groups, including a ban on explicitly offering cash to lure recruits, and says deals can only be made after an athlete commits to a school. But the NCAA is also hampered by jurisdictional losses, eroding its power to regulate collectives. Until recently, there was little evidence that they were being monitored at all.

As a result, elite college sports programs, especially in football and basketball, have become a virtually unfettered market, with coaches openly encouraging alumni and other donors to keep them competitive by donating money.

Some schools have become increasingly emboldened and have turned to their state lawmakers to fight back against the NCAA as it tries to set rules.

The latest example came in December, when attorneys general in seven states — including Tennessee — filed an antitrust lawsuit against the NCAA, citing any restrictions on transfers as a restraint of trade. This month, the lawsuit was joined by the Justice Department.

NCAA President Charlie Baker has asked Congress for an antitrust exemption. He testified on Capitol Hill that these lawsuits — along with recently enacted state laws targeting NIL regulations — make it virtually impossible for the organization to govern its members.

The New York Times counts at least 140 collectives operating at schools with major football and basketball programs. Collectives now account for about 80 percent of all name, image and likeness payments to athletes, far more than all the commercial brands for which the system was created.

In investigating Tennessee's football program, the NCAA is investigating a team backed by one of the nation's wealthiest and most outspoken collectives, a booster-funded group called the Volunteer Club. That group is closely tied to a marketing agency called Spyre Sports Group: the two entities share the same top executives and the same address in Knoxville, Tennessee.

Last year, the website On3.com, which tracks collectives, called the Volunteer Club the “leading collective in the countryafter the group said it had raised $13.5 million for Tennessee athletes.

The biggest prize went to Mr. Iamaleava, a 6-foot-4 quarterback from Long Beach, California, who was ranked fourth in his class.

“The nice word that is used is 'collective'. But make no mistake, this is a war chest,” said Hunter Baddour, a top official of both Spyre Sports and the Volunteer Club, said on a podcast in 2022. “We are fundraising and creating a NIL war chest where Tennessee will be as competitive as anyone in the country.”

As the collective grew, Tennessee improved on the field. After a long, dismal stretch, the Volunteers posted a 9-4 record this past year and finished the season in the top 20.

Mr Baddour also organized a lobby group for this new industry, the Collective Association, which is said to have done just that called on the NCAA to share part of his extensive television income with collectives.

Mr Baddour and James Clawson, the Volunteer Club's other top official, did not respond to requests for comment on Tuesday.

The NIL rules that came into effect in 2021 allowed players to be paid for endorsements but continued to prevent students from being paid to play. But collectives have effectively found a way around that limitation.

They signed athletes to huge contracts for small amounts of work – sometimes just one social media post per month – to keep them happy and playing at their chosen school.

Last July, the NCAA fined Tennessee $8 million and placed its athletics program on five years' probation after finding that “repeated and serious violations'of the ban on coaches using cash to recruit players. These violations happened before the name, image and likeness system: instead, coaches paid football players the old-fashioned way, in cash.

Since collectives emerged in late 2021, the NCAA has announced two cases in which schools were punished for name, image and likeness payments from boosters. This was imposed last year mild punishments at the University of Miami after a booster posted photos of him courting potential transfer students for the women's basketball team.

This month, however, the NCAA imposed harsher penalties — including a fine and two years' probation — on Florida State after a football coach there brought a potential transfer student to a meeting with a collective. The collective then offered the player $15,000 a month to sign with Florida State, the NCAA said. The player declined the offer and stayed at his original school.