On May 29, 2026, six Tennessee State University coaches submitted a vote of no confidence in athletic director Mikki Allen to university president Dewayne Tucker, according to The Tennessean. The letter, signed by football coach Reggie Barlow, men’s basketball coach Nolan Smith, women’s basketball coach Candice Dupree, softball coach Genee McRath, track and field coach Chandra Cheeseborough, and volleyball coach Donika Sutton, cited concerns about leadership, communication, resource allocation, and operational management in the athletic department. President Tucker confirmed receipt of the letter and said the university is investigating; The Tennessean reported.
The concerns raised in the letter, particularly regarding resource allocation and operational management, have a financial dimension that the public record can address. The budget data behind Tennessee State athletics offers context for understanding how the department has been structured, how it has grown, and where the money has gone.
About the Data
Tennessee State’s FY2025 NCAA Membership Financial Reporting System filing is not yet available. The figures in this article are drawn from two sources: the EADA federal filing for academic year 2024-25, which covers total program revenue and expenses by sport, and the Knight-Newhouse College Athletics Database MFRS trends data, which covers FY2020 through FY2024 and provides a year-by-year picture of Tennessee State’s athletic budget during Mikki Allen’s tenure as athletic director. Tennessee State’s individual school dashboards are available through the EADA 2024-25 Index.
A Budget Built on Institutional Support
Tennessee State’s athletic department reported $18,708,180 in total revenue and $18,622,127 in total expenses for the academic year 2024-25, resulting in a net of $86,053. That total budget ranks the program among the larger athletic departments in the Data Driven HBCU D1 cohort, sitting behind Norfolk State ($24.9M) and NC A&T ($22.5M) in total EADA revenue.
The trends data covering Allen’s tenure offers a look at how the department’s budget has shifted since 2020. Institutional support stood at $6,976,004 in FY2020, the year Allen was hired. By FY2024, it had grown to $12,917,714, nearly doubling over four years. Coach compensation rose from $2,781,058 to $4,976,003 over the same period. Facilities costs climbed from $2,235,126 to $4,123,125.
| Year | Inst. Support | Student Fees | Coach Comp | Facilities | Ticket Sales |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| FY2020 | $6,976,004 | $2,653,573 | $2,781,058 | $2,235,126 | $557,491 |
| FY2021 | $7,047,943 | $2,620,075 | $3,087,232 | $2,113,240 | $35,229 |
| FY2022 | $9,787,401 | $3,111,739 | $4,097,027 | $4,094,341 | $276,808 |
| FY2023 | $12,748,663 | $3,384,907 | $4,659,357 | $4,203,487 | $633,231 |
| FY2024 | $12,917,714 | $2,977,172 | $4,976,003 | $4,123,125 | $608,657 |
Source: Knight-Newhouse College Athletics Database, MFRS data FY2020-FY2024. Tennessee State FY2025 MFRS data is pending. FY2021 ticket sales reflect the COVID-19 season.
Ticket revenue has remained flat throughout Allen’s tenure, coming in at $608,657 in FY2024, slightly above the FY2020 figure of $557,491 and well below what the department generated in prior years. The budget growth since 2020 has been driven by institutional support rather than earned revenue.
In September 2025, Tennessee State Athletics announced a multiyear agreement with Taymar, a North Carolina-based college sports marketing firm, to handle ticket sales and sponsorships. “Partnering with Taymar gives us a strong advantage as we continue to expand our reach and impact,” Allen said in the announcement. “The Taymar approach to revenue generation through ticketing and sponsorships will help us connect more deeply with our fans, alumni, and partners in the Nashville community.” The agreement represents a structural effort to build an earned-revenue operation around a budget that trend data show has grown almost entirely through institutional support.
One initiative aimed at changing that direction is the renewal of the Tennessee State-Jackson State football rivalry through the John Merritt Classic. In a January 2026 statement from Tennessee State athletics, Allen announced that the two programs had agreed to resume the historic rivalry, with games scheduled for Aug. 29, 2026, in Nashville and Aug. 28, 2027, in Jackson, Mississippi. “Events of this magnitude drive economic impact, strengthen community partnerships and serve as powerful platforms for student recruitment and alumni engagement,” Allen wrote in the statement. The John Merritt Classic represents a direct effort to grow the kind of gate revenue that the department’s budget data shows has remained stagnant since 2020.
How Resources Are Distributed Across Sports
The coaches’ letter specifically cited “uneven allocation of resources and support among programs” as one of the core concerns. The EADA data for 2024-25 provides a direct look at how Tennessee State’s budget is distributed.
| Category | Revenue | Expenses |
|---|---|---|
| Football | $6,913,955 | $6,913,955 |
| Men’s Basketball | $1,633,260 | $1,633,260 |
| Women’s Basketball | $1,291,259 | $1,291,258 |
| All Men’s Sports | $9,498,435 | $9,498,435 |
| All Women’s Sports | $3,330,212 | $3,330,212 |
| Total Athletics | $18,708,180 | $18,622,127 |
Football accounts for $6.9 million of the total budget, the second-highest football expense in the Data Driven HBCU D1 cohort behind Norfolk State. Men’s sports as a whole received $9.5 million in allocated resources, compared with $3.3 million for women’s sports. The average head coach compensation for men’s programs was $172,149. For women’s programs, it was $84,318. Those gaps are not unusual by Division I standards at this level, but they are the numerical backdrop against which the coaching staff raised equity concerns.
Enrollment and the Institutional Turnaround
One figure that stands apart from the athletic budget itself is enrollment. Tennessee State reported 5,886 students in 2023-24. In 2024-25, that number was 4,472, a decline of more than 1,400 students in a single year. Enrollment drives student fee revenue, which contributed $2.98 million to the athletic budget in FY2024. A sustained decline in enrollment creates a structural pressure on the revenue base that does not show up in any single year’s athletic filing but shapes the environment in which resource decisions are made.
The enrollment drop does not exist in isolation. Tennessee State entered the 2024-25 academic year in the aftermath of a severe institutional financial crisis. The university had been on the brink of collapse, with the state providing an $11 million budget advance and a $32 million infusion just to keep operations running in 2023-24. President Dwayne Tucker, who took over during that crisis, had transformed the university’s finances to a $13.2 million surplus by the end of 2025, according to NewsChannel 5. Tucker also hired a new vice president of enrollment management as part of a broader restructuring effort, and the university’s graduation rate rose 10 percent. That recovery is the institutional backdrop against which the athletic department’s resource allocation decisions were made during Allen’s tenure.
Tennessee State is also the only HBCU in the Ohio Valley Conference, competing against programs with different funding structures and institutional histories. The program relies more heavily on institutional support to close the gap between the costs of fielding a Division I program and the revenue generated through ticket sales, sponsorships, and other sources.
Update: FY26 and FY27 Athletics Budget
Data Driven HBCU obtained Tennessee State’s Finance Committee meeting materials from its May 14, 2026 meeting. Tennessee State reduced its total athletics expenses by $4,811,127, from $18,622,127 in FY2025 to $13,811,000 in FY2026. The estimated budget shows a $9.4 million shortfall the school must cover.
| Revenue Source | FY26 Estimated | FY27 Proposed |
|---|---|---|
| Student Athletic Fee | $2,071,000 | $1,756,000 |
| Ticket Sales | $1,177,000 | $1,091,000 |
| Game Guarantees | $308,000 | $850,000 |
| Parking | $325,000 | $325,000 |
| Other | $481,000 | $473,000 |
| Total Revenue | $4,363,000 | $4,495,000 |
| Total Expenses | $13,811,000 | $14,167,000 |
| Net Operating Deficit | ($9,448,000) | ($9,672,000) |
Student fee revenue drops from $2.07 million in FY26 to $1.76 million in FY27, a direct result of fewer students on campus. This is despite the athletic fee per student increasing 7 percent in FY26, from $458 to $490, meaning a smaller student body is being asked to contribute more. The good news is that game guarantees jump from $308,000 to $850,000 in FY27. As a result, the overall deficit inches up from $9.4 million to $9.7 million.
The same FY27 budget that shows a growing deficit also includes $138,080 to retain Nolan Smith as men’s basketball coach following his first year, and $100,000 to add scholarships for the OVC championship team. Both were approved in the same budget cycle in which Smith signed the no-confidence letter against Allen.
Data Driven HBCU covers the financial reality of public HBCU athletics using publicly available federal filings and NCAA data. EADA figures are drawn from OPE filings for academic year 2024-25. MFRS trend figures are drawn from the Knight-Newhouse College Athletics Database, covering FY2020 through FY2024. Tennessee State’s FY2025 MFRS report is pending.
Sources
U.S. Department of Education, Office of Postsecondary Education. Equity in Athletics Data Analysis. Academic year 2024-25. ope.ed.gov/athletics
Knight-Newhouse College Athletics Database. MFRS historical data, FY2005-FY2024. Tennessee State University.
Organ, Mike. “TSU coaches sign vote of no confidence letter against AD Mikki Allen.” The Tennessean, June 1, 2026.
Allen, Mikki. “State of the Tigers — January 2026.” Tennessee State University Athletics, Jan. 13, 2026.
Tennessee State University Athletics. “Athletics Signs Multiyear Agreement with Taymar.” Sept. 16, 2025.
Ismail, Levi. “‘What a difference a year makes,’ says TSU president after HBCU’s stunning financial turnaround.” NewsChannel 5 (WTVF), Dec. 23, 2025.
