ÃÛèÖÖ±²¥

The eight UA fans who wrote to me were, shall we say, UNHAPPY.

It was a welcome-to-Tuesday introduction to the UA’s new fundraising campaign that could be titled “NIL will eventually touch the pockets of all college sports fans.�

If you own two ÃÛèÖÖ±²¥ basketball season tickets in Section 115C — the “cheap seatsâ€� in the upper deck on the east side. They are no longer cheap seats. Prices for the front row have climbed from $1,570 in 2021 to $2,040 this season. Over four seasons, that’s roughly a 30% ticket increase. It’s college basketball’s version of buying eggs.

Next year those tickets will be bumped up another $100 to $2,140 for what the UA is calling a “competitive fee,� a $50 fee charged for every men’s basketball and football season ticket. The UA further says this is necessary “in a relentless effort to compete at the highest level.�

If my back-of-the-notebook math is correct, ÃÛèÖÖ±²¥â€™s athletic department could raise close to $2 million from this competitive fee, which also includes $25 per season ticket in women’s basketball, baseball and softball.

That would be about 10% of the $20 million the UA needs to reach the maximum of the NCAA’s new revenue-sharing plan. The only way the Wildcats will get to $20 million is to piece it together through resourceful programs such as the “competitive fee.�

This unprecedented search for money in college athletics is inevitable.

Every mid-level school in Division I sports will — must — do something similar. Oregon State, for example, last week implemented a $3 “Student-Athlete Enrichment Fee� to each football ticket and parking pass for the 2025 football season. Revenues generated from the fee will contribute to the university’s revenue-sharing plan with student-athletes.

Oregon State earlier implemented a $21 per ticket fee called “Completing Reser Stadium,� created when the school’s football stadium was torn down and renovated two years ago. Someone’s got to pay the bills, and it’s clear the fans here and everywhere are Option A.