In July 2022, University of Tennessee director of athletics Danny White announced the launch of "Rise Glorious," a comprehensive five-year strategic plan designed to advance Tennessee Athletics through committees that focus on student-athlete success, culture, resources, brand advancement and messaging, and competitive excellence.
As the initiative concludes its second year, the athletic department on Tuesday announced the initiative's accomplishments from the 2023-24 academic season.
Here is a breakdown by category, goal and achievements, as outlined in the athletic department's announcement::
Student-Athlete Success
We will maximize the transformative power of the student-athlete experience by leveraging the impact of sport to holistically develop our student-athletes and empowering each of them to succeed in educational and competitive endeavors while preparing them for life beyond athletics.
- Tennessee Athletics finished the school year with all 16 teams securing over a 3.0 GPA for both semesters. During the fall, the Big Orange posted a 3.40 departmental GPA, which marked the best semester in Tennessee history.
- For the second straight year, a Tennessee student-athlete was named a Torchbearer, as Rylie West of softball was selected for the prestigious award.
- Over $285,000 in postgraduate scholarships were awarded to Vols and Lady Vols.
- Graduation rate of 98% among student-athletes who exhausted eligibility.
- Student-athletes had a record-setting utilization of all physical and mental services offered on campus.
- UT expanded its Sports Science team by hiring a second member.
- Implemented more Faculty Visit Programs.
- More than 180 first- and second-year student-athletes participated in Financial Literacy Education.
"These outcomes of outstanding work allow these accomplishments to happen," White said. "Our record GPAs are in the classroom as well. We are proud of how our student-athletes compete in the classroom."
Culture
We will attract goal-driven and intensely competitive teammates to strengthen our family-oriented, innovative and fearless culture as Tennessee Athletics is a career destination.
- Tennessee Athletics developed and implemented over 12 events this year, such as Back to School BBQ, Football Tailgates, Faculty Coach Luncheon and Voloween for staff to engage in and attend.
- Created an inter-departmental TV channel for centralized communication with student-athletes, coaches, and staff, which included athletics events and an engagement calendar.
- Student-athletes were involved in ongoing community outreach through SA Development and in executing the Tennessee Athletics Staff Day of Service in April 2024.
- Implementation of Leadership retreats for administration and coaching staffs, such as the Disney Institute, Faculty and Coaches Luncheon, Lady Vol Leadership Summit and Coaches Retreat.
"The most important thing for us is to ensure our student-athletes and staff are happy and fulfilled in what they're doing," said Tennessee senior deputy athletics director/chief operating officer Allen Greene. "Part of our job is to make sure we're setting up a structure that attracts the most talented, most competitive and most innovative individuals out there. We then want to provide an environment for them to thrive and be the best at what they do. Not their best for Tennessee, but their best in the country. Whether that means the onboarding process, that's professional development, that's making sure we're finding time to bond and grow together as a team. We have to make sure at the end of the day that we understand where we're going and that we're providing the resources to help get them there."
Resources
We will aggressively build our resource base to empower our coaches and student-athletes to compete at the highest levels by engaging all stakeholders and capitalizing on the passion and power of Vol Nation.
- Annual Fund achieved $57 million to date.
- Shareholder Society received 308 gifts this fiscal year, shattering its previous record (217).
- Tennessee sold out its entire allotment of season tickets for football (70,500) and men's basketball (14,500) for the 2023-24 season, beating the established goals in both. UT increased its season ticket sales for women's basketball from the previous year and finished with approximately 6,800.
- Sponsorship Revenue beat its goal by nearly $2 million, bringing in $21.9 million for the year.
- Eclipsed the Budget Goal of $180 million and with the expectation of finishing around the $220 million range.
"When we look back at all the success we had this year across the board, to do that, you must have a resource base that allows it to happen," said White. "Our strategic plan has very aggressive revenue goals, and I think we have shattered all of them in the first couple years. I'm proud that Neyland Stadium is sold out, as is the Food City Center for men's basketball. Our baseball and softball stadiums are also sold out. Ticket sales have beaten all the records, and we can't sell any more tickets. We have had two straight record fundraising years, two straight record sponsorship revenue years, and record licensing revenue years. Obviously, competitive success allows an environment and momentum with our fans to allow revenue growth. There's a lot of really hard-working people on our revenue teams and a lot of really hard-working people on our creative and broadcast teams that keep our fan base excited and engaged, which allows these things to happen."
"Our philosophy as the athletic department is that we want to grow resources to be the best athletic department in the country; we want to have the highest budget," added deputy athletic director of championship resources/chief revenue officer Ryan Alpert. "We invest our resources right back into our student-athletes and our programs to try and find effective ways to help our programs win. I think in our three years here we've grown revenues by $80 million, and I think we've significantly and aggressively reinvested those revenues back into our sports programs and delivered huge successes."
Brand Advancement & Messaging
We will strengthen meaningful connections to the athletics program and modernize the way we tell the Volunteer story nationally and globally through the Power of the T.
- Launched America's College Sports City Branding campaign in July of 2023, which showed continuous growth throughout the year and will continue for years to come.
- For the first time ever, licensing royalties reached over $10 million, ranking Tennessee 3rd in the country amongst CLC schools in licensing royalties.
- Formulated a "Brand Opportunity Calendar" to capitalize on crucial moments for exposure throughout the year.
- Launched Game Day Training program with Disney that will carry on for 2025 & 2026 and continue growth of "Welcome to Rocky Top."
- Developed a Branding and Uniform Guide that was communicated to teams/departments to establish a set of guidelines for all Tennessee Athletics branding–from logos to wordmarks to style preferences.
- Hired a new Chief Creative Officer to spearhead all efforts in promoting and branding Tennessee Athletics.
"We had a few key goals that we really wanted to hit in unifying the Power T and the Lady Vol logo, growing our overall footprint in Knoxville and across the state," said Tennessee executive associates athletic director of external operations Alicia Longworth. "Recently, we've launched the Volunteer State campaign. Last year, we launched the America's College Sports City campaign. We established several committees to try and get everybody aligned and working toward the same goal just to make sure that the Orange and White is represented in a manner that we all want it to be represented every day. It helps us grow our licensed product and our revenue there; it helps us grow the brand everywhere. Getting more people interested in Tennessee Athletics to grow our recruiting base and then grow the season ticket holder base with that."
Competitive Excellence
We will cultivate a championship culture that propels Tennessee to compete for SEC and national championships.
- Tennessee achieved the highest LEARFIELD Directors' Cup finish ever, finishing third nationally and first in the SEC. It marked the second straight year with a top-10 placement in the standings (No. 6 in 2022-23).
- Tennessee Baseball brought home its first national championship in program history.
- UT won its third consecutive SEC All-Sports Title, becoming only the second school in conference history to win three titles.
- The Vols and Lady Vols combined to win four conference championships (Baseball - Regular Season and Tournament, Men's Basketball - Regular Season, Softball - Regular Season).
- For the first time in school history, all 20 sports at Tennessee reached the postseason (the NCAAs and a bowl game).
"Winning is contagious," said White. "I think our student-athletes see each other have the kind of success that they have. We talk about that in recruiting; we have 670 serious-minded men and women that come here to make the most of themselves as a person, student, and athlete. They're all extremely talented, or we wouldn't be recruiting them. I think the football or volleyball player sitting next to the swimmer or the track star, who are all All-Americans in our dining facility, is a healthy environment. We want to be excellent at everything we do. We love the term 'Everything School' and winning in everything we do that represents this big-time university and the state of Tennessee."
