I can't believe people are complaining about this.
Are you people not fans of football in general?
There are so many good games that Saturday, as a football fan I'm glad we were moved. Now I can watch Auburn/Clemson and Alabama/USC without having to miss them just to watch our Vols destory an overmatched opponent.
Now the football fan in me gets to watch all the great games that Saturday.
To be fair, with the way the television selections usually work and the level of opponent we play in week 1, UT would have most likely been playing much earlier in the day anyways.
You likely wouldn't have missed either the USC/Alabama or the Clemson/Auburn game because of ours.
Hart said SEC approached him after ESPN asked SEC to move another game to Thursday night.
Surely a lot of $$$ incentives here for TN and I bet we can get more recruits to the game since all of them will want to go to Auburn Clemson, Bama-USC, UGA-UNC ect on Saturday.
Cons:
1. No tailgating.
2. Rushing to campus right after work.
3. No parking (school is in session. Including night classes. Parking hell)
4. Late exit from the game. Late to bed. Crappy next day at work.
5. It's a holiday weekend. Taking a 4 1/2 day weekend isn't an option.
6. If you don't live in Knoxville, the above point really screws you.
7. Tailgate Tennessee. If you bought this, you are now screwed. If you provide catering to these groups, you are now screwed. If you provide other services to Tailgate TN / tailgating, in general, you are now screwed.
8. Hotels now have cancellations to deal with.
9. This is now a give-away ticket for many people, so get ready for Cousin Rick and his clan to come on down to Neyland, not pay attention to the game, and leave at half-time.
Tennessee screwed up here. They put out a schedule, allowed people to make plans, then created a logistical hot mess, even this far in advance. They can talk about how "exciting" this is, but it's really not.
Pro:
Tons of tickets on the street, so mine will be a nice seat for cheap.
But there also has to be some sort of fine print or disclaimer when said ticket holder purchases the ticket that things like this may happen correct?
For those of you that forgot, we also played in the first FOOTBALL game of 2016, as well, in the Outback Bowl. We're getting our name atop of lots of lists. Hopefully we'll be the last game of the CFB year too.
My ticket renewal paperwork for this year says "game times subject to change". I suppose it's open to interpretation as to whether that should encompass moving the game to a different date altogether.