Exclusive: Will Perdue Assesses State of Vanderbilt Basketball, Revenue Sharing

NASHVILLE—It’s been over 13,000 days, 36 years and a rolodex of Vanderbilt basketball coaches since Will Perdue last took the Memorial Gymnasium floor as a Vanderbilt player, but there he was on the home baseline of the gym greeting everyone in sight as if he had never left this place.

The interactions ranged from a fan walking up to Perdue in the late first half of Wednesday night’s game with a silver pen and an authentic Perdue Chicago Bulls jersey, a hug with Vanderbilt Athletic Director Candice Storey Lee, a handshake with former Vanderbilt star Shan Foster as well as an impromptu halftime meet and greet with a consistent flow of fans.

As Perdue went through the line of handshakes and pictures, he noticed something that reaffirmed what he believes is a need to help Mark Byington’s Vanderbilt program through the Nashville Basketball Initiative.

“The interesting thing, when you look at it the majority of the fanbase is still those that watched me play when I was here,” Perdue told Vandy on SI. “It’s a good thing because they’ve been coming to Memorial for a long time, but at the same time we really need to start working and reaching out and really recruiting a new age of Vanderbilt fans.”

Here’s Mark Byington’s full comments on the Memorial Gymnasium attendance issues:

"The people that came out tonight, we really appreciate your support, the ones that are watching at home, we don't feel that support.”

More @VandyOnSI:https://t.co/72Z7vnkI3V pic.twitter.com/d8Z1dg51bJ
— Joey Dwyer (@joey_dwy) November 13, 2025

Perdue acknowledges that Byington is doing the heavy lifting in terms of building the fanbase by working to build a winner, but believes that his organization can help. Perdue’s Nashville Basketball Initiative aims to assist Byington by providing extra money, expanding Vanderbilt’s fanbase and help his program to become one that has “no boundaries” to becoming a consistent winner.

The former Vanderbilt standout and Byington are aligned on their idea that his program needs better crowds than the one he had on hand for its Wednesday-night win over Eastern Kentucky. Perdue says that there’s a need to “a better job with the student section” although he says he’s “glad” to see that kids he spoke to on Wednesday night have carried over their parents’ and grandparents’ fandom.

Perhaps the best way for Perdue to contribute to expanding Vanderbilt’s fanbase is his organization’s work with Byington to help him sift through what the Vanderbilt head coach calls a “complicated” revenue sharing situation. Perdue estimates that men’s basketball at each school gets 15% of revenue sharing money–which equates to around 2.7 or 2.8 million–and that most programs are likely operating with around five to eight million dollars rather than the baseline number that comes with revenue sharing.

“You need to have that third-party entity that can help you go above and beyond that 2.7 million,” Perdue said in regard to his organization. “Now you’ve got to help Mark get to that five, six marker. So you're talking two to three million above and beyond when rev share is. It's now schools are only allowed to give that rev share number and that's it.  So you’ve got to find some way to get that other other piece of the pie.”

Perdue appears to believe that there’s some work that needs to be done in order for Byington to have what he needs to repeat the offseason success that he had the last two offseasons with purely Name, Image and Likeness funding rather than revenue sharing, but commends Byington for the team that he watched from the stands on Wednesday night.

The former Vanderbilt big man called Byington’s product “must watch” at times last season and says that his hope for this program is that it can win big at some point down the line. He appears to believe that Byington has gotten it closer to that point with the team that Perdue watched from the third row of the stands behind Vanderbilt’s TV announcers on Wednesday night.

“Now your goal, obviously, is the next step, and the next step is getting out of that first round,” Perdue said. “Not only just getting to the tournament, you got to get out of the first round. This team definitely, from an individualistic standpoint, has that talent. I think the talent level this year is much higher than last year. But I also think these guys have a little better understanding of the team concept of the sacrifice necessary from an individual standpoint makes you better as a team than that makes it better for everybody.”