Donor fatigue: Some college football fans wonder why they have to pay for

Brent Freeman has been a Georgia football season ticket holder all 32 years of his life. The tickets were passed down in the family, and now he and his father donate just more than $4,000 per year to UGA for the right to have four seats around the 25-yard line, about 50 rows up.

“It’s perfect,” Freeman said of the view.

Freeman, who lives in Evans, Ga., just outside of Augusta, describes himself as middle class. Spending thousands of dollars per year for tickets isn’t ideal, but it just always has been in the family budget. He loves the Dawgs. Two years ago, when a friend pointed him to Georgia’s new name, image and likeness collective, Freeman decided to chip in: $30 per month.

But now the dynamic is changing. The collectives are seen as the way to get players, and Freeman worries he and other fans will be asked for more. Meanwhile, he sees the SEC paying tens of millions each year to its schools, including Georgia. And he hears about the NIL payments — from fans like him, not the schools — going to certain recruits.

“No ill will toward the university or anything. My gripe is with the system,” Freeman said. “Asking us fans, I think, is wrong. I think it’s comical the money the NCAA brings in, and the fact they’re asking fans — and not just Georgia fans, but fans across the country — to give more, it’s just kind of comical. You can’t explain to me that this is the best way to do it.”

That is an emerging complaint from fans and one more factor that could create big changes in college sports, including revenue sharing in which schools directly pay their athletes, rather than asking fans to foot the bill through collectives.

There’s a term for it in the NIL industry: donor fatigue. Fans who are already asked to donate a lot for season tickets, not to mention the facilities arms race, are now being asked to essentially pay the players, while the schools are prohibited from doing so directly by NCAA rules.

“It certainly is on the minds of all of us right now,” said Walker Jones, executive director of The Grove Collective, which supports Ole Miss athletes. “I think there’s an understanding that donor-led and fan-led model is not equitable and not sustainable. …

“I think it’s wise for these power conferences to figure out a revenue share and to figure out a way to collectively bargain. Which would then address donor fatigue, it would add sustainability and it would give the athletes the ability to truly capitalize on name, image and likeness, through revenue sharing.”

Georgia fans get fired up before the start of a game in 2023. (USA Today)

One person likened NIL to a trampoline: It’s used to get the program to the next level, but the trampoline costs money to build, and people need to be shown how to use it. Other people might not see NIL as a trampoline but as a burden.

The collectives don’t depend entirely on small, month-to-month donors. Big donors, whether individuals or…