VTTW Board Index

Where are we going?

I think we are headed to the outback, but could slip into the citrus. Likely a big 10 opponent in either case.

Either one would be cool.  Prefer the Outback for personal reasons (more golf)

Outback

Having said that last year everyone was surprised at the taxslayer so it could be another shocker.

Based on some of the things I've been reading, I have a sinking feeling we may end up in Charlotte.  Better than Memphis or Birmingham, I guess.  We'll find out next weekend. :dunno:

TRObh is hoping for the Citrus; we could make it a family trip. :biggrin:

If it's in Charlotte, I might consider driving down from MD for that one - assuming I could Stubhub a reasonably priced ticket.  What's the black market for bowl tix like these days?  I see from the Belk Bowl website tix are $140 lower deck and $70 upper deck.  Near front row upper deck 50 yd line seats are available for $70.  Not too bad.  I wonder if they are basically giving tix away around kickoff time??? 

The skinny: supposedly the Belk Bowl was irked at the SEC for sticking them with UGA last year.  Their fanbase was beaten down (still is) and they didn't sell many tickets.  They want a team that will travel well this year, and in the SEC, UT is at the top of everyone's list in that regard right now.  So they're calling in a favor, and they expect the league to do them a solid.

Which is sadly ironic if you think about it.  In theory, the bowls exist to serve as a reward for the players and fans.  But if this is true, it sounds more like the players and fans exist to serve as a reward for the bowls. :frown:

The best way to avoid allowing the SEC to use us as a pawn is to take the SEC out of the equation. If Florida goes to the Sugar Bowl as expected, would it really be THAT much of a surprise to see the Citrus pick UT over LSU or Ole Miss? We can sell as many or more tickets as either of those two programs. If the Citrus were to pick Tennessee, the SEC doesn't get to pick.

OTOH, there are rumors that the Citrus wants LSU. So what happens if that happens and the Sugar Bowl picks Ole Miss strictly because of geography? In that scenario, there's absolutely no way the Outback Bowl doesn't lobby hard for Florida, so the Belk Bowl becomes a best-case scenario.

Unfortunately, I wouldn't be surprised to see us drop all the way to Nashville or -- even worse -- Memphis as a bowl destination.

IMO if Bama beats Florida....which they will. Ole Miss goes to the Sugar.

I just looked at four bowl projection sites and they each had the Vols going to different bowl games:  :dunno:

•Outback (cbssports.com) (Northwestern)
•Music City (saturdaydownsouth.com) (Wisconsin)
•Belk (collegesportsmadness.com) (NC State)
•Liberty (campusinsiders.com) (West Virginia)

Of those, I would go only to the Outback.

An excuse to go to Tampa never hurts :thumbup:

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We went to the Boston College and Penn State Outback Bowls and had a blast. Of course all 16 bowls we've been to over the years we've had a blast  :nod:

Didn't go to the Badger beat down Outback?
Much more fun that the PSU Outback ...
At least they start at noon  now, as opposed to the "I might as well stay up and watch the game" times they used to have

IMO, the only way UF gets the Sugar Bowl is if they beat bammer.  They hardly ever go bowling outside of Florida unless they're locked into a title game and/or the SEC champ's bowl slot (or they drop to the very bottom of the SEC's pecking order, as they did last season).  And there's a reason for that: their fans are frontrunning softies who don't travel well.  They were outnumbered by Louisville in the Sugar Bowl a couple years ago.  The company line there was that the fans were still down after losing to UGA and getting locked out of the title game, and they weren't excited to play a "small potatoes" team like Lousiville (who, incidentally, beat them down).  Fair enough.  Those kinds of situations sometimes happen with big boy football schools.  However, when they went to Phoenix to play OSU for the National Title in 2006, they were outnumbered by a good 5-1.  At LEAST.  No excuse for that.  

Give the Sugar Bowl a choice, and they'll pick OM over UF 10 times out of 10.