Tennessee athletic director Danny White wants to see college athletes become employees

Tennessee found itself in the spotlight — and in the NCAA’s crosshairs again — this month when Gov. Bill Lee signed a bill that would essentially allow Tennessee, Memphis, and Vanderbilt to not have to abide by the new revenue-sharing rules and ultimately continue NIL collective payments. That caused a response from the NCAA.

Tennessee has (essentially) responded to that response.

Conference leaders want their members to sign “membership agreement” contracts to eliminate future lawsuits and allow the new rules coming with the College Sports Commission to become enforceable. Tennessee athletic director Danny White went on record later in the week after the new leadership plan was leaked to state that he would rather see a different route taken in college athletics.

.@AD_DannyWhite wears many hats in the world of college sports. He works daily to make the best decisions for our student-athletes, our fans, and our campus. Thanks, Danny, for all you do! pic.twitter.com/RQjJttMBXI

— Donde Plowman (@DondePlowman) May 22, 2025

“It’s a real issue, we could go on and on about what we need,” White said. “But I’ll say it, we’ve got a camera on us (but) I don’t really care at this point: collective bargaining (CBA) is the only solution.”

That belief is in direct opposition of what the NCAA — and its leaders — have wanted to do. For months, SEC Commissioner Greg Sankey, NCAA President Charlie Baker, and multiple other administrators have made multiple trips to Capitol Hill to ask for antitrust support once the House v. NCAA settlement was passed and revenue-sharing would arrive in college athletics. However, eliminating blatant pay-for-play from collectives is seemingly a top goal along with not making athletes employees for the leaders in college athletics. Sankey has even publicly discussed wanting to specifically avoid making athletes employees of universities

White believes the opposite.

Throughout the entire NIL era, Tennessee has had some one-on-one battles with the NCAA after pay-for-play scandal that costed head football coach Jeremy Pruitt his job before NIL became legal in college athletics. The NCAA tried to make quarterback Nico Iamaleava ineligible before the 2024 season because Tennessee fought back with lawyers and state legislation to get the NCAA to back off. Now Tennessee is fighting back again.

Expect Danny White to be a popular figure at next week’s SEC Spring Meetings in Destin. We are still waiting on the settlement to pass so we can officially enter this new era, but Tennessee is already trying to change the rules before the rules are established.

It is possible that White might not be wrong here. The big antitrust problem that keeps putting college athletics in court could be eliminated with a negotiated CBA, but as with everything in this evolving world, it’s a bit complicated.