The NCAA suspended Tennessee linebacker Arion Carter earlier this summer for accepting a $427 flight from an agent after he had declared for the NFL draft in late 2025. After playing through a foot injury during the 2025 season, he aggravated it and needed surgery, ultimately pulling out of the draft and returning to Tennessee to play another season.

He was originally suspended for two games, but the suspension was reduced to just one. That meant Carter missed the season opener against Furman on Sept. 5, but will return to the field when Tennessee faces Georgia Tech on Sept. 12. This was even after Carter had disengaged from the agent and repaid him for the flight in January. 

But Carter decided to make the best of his situation and take it a step further by paying it forward. He announced Monday that, starting with the Sept. 12 game, he would begin donating to cancer research for different stats he accumulates this season. For every tackle, he’ll donate $427 (a nod to the amount of the flight that got him in trouble in the first place). And for every sack, he’ll donate $500; $1,000 for every interception or forced fumble; and $5,000 for every defensive touchdown he scores, Volquest reported. 

Why Arion Carter is donating to cancer research

Carter has a very personal connection to the donations he’s making. Earlier this summer, Volquest reported Carter had cut his hair to honor his girlfriend, Mariah Bryant, who is battling breast cancer. He said he’s dedicating his senior season to honor her, raising money for Nashville-area cancer treatments at Sisters Network Nashville and helping pay Bryant’s medical bills. 

He told Volquest he wants to “raise awareness” and “build a foundation that’s able to … have a nonprofit and give back to people in need and people who are going through tough times like my girlfriend.”

While there isn’t a publicly available figure for Carter’s net worth, his name, image, and likeness deals are estimated at $775,000, according to The NIL Standard. While that’s a large sum of money for a college player, that amount is dwarfed by other players. For example, the player with the highest NIL value is Texas quarterback Arch Manning at $6.8 million, NIL Standard data shows.

Carter isn’t the first college football player to donate sizeable sums to charity, but his stat-by-stat pledge is unique. Most player giving has taken the form of lump-sum donations. For example, Manning donated the entire $102,500 raised from auctioning off a Panini trading card to the Ronald McDonald House of Central Texas in 2023. Former Iowa offensive lineman Tyler Linderbaum gave $30,000 of his NIL earnings to the University of Iowa Stead Family Children’s Hospital. (He now plays for the Las Vegas Raiders). Missouri linebacker Damon Wilson pledged $10,000 to youth football programs in Florida, and others have gone even further: former Ohio State lineman Harry Miller planned to donate all of his NIL earnings to humanitarian efforts in Nicaragua. 

Based on Carter’s stats from last year, his plan could result in a pretty sizable donation. Assuming the same stats as last year,  the Chattanooga Times Free Press projected the donations could total more than $42,000.