Basketball or football school

#1
DarkVolder

DarkVolder

Come on over to the dark side
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#1
A legitimate question these days is are we a basketball or football school? I wouid argue more a basketball school these days. More recent high level success in basketball this century than football more conference titles and post season success and better coaches, Jerry Green , Bruce Pearl and Rick Barnes def trumps Dooley , Butch and Pruitt. Football makes more money but i think since 2000 we are known more for our hardwood success than on the grid iron.
 
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#3
#3
DarkVolder said:
A legitimate question these days is are we a basketball or football school? I wouid argue more a basketball school , more recent high level success in basketball this century than football more conference titles and post season success and better coaches, Jerry Green , Bruce Pearl and Rick Barnes def trumps Dooley , Butch and Pruitt. Football makes more money but i think since 2000 we are known more for our hardwood success than on the grid iron.
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Honestly don’t really think it matters. I think with NIL and free agency, a school can be whatever it devotes its resources to.
 
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#4
#4
In my lifetime, we have actually had more years of nationally relevant, sustained success in basketball. We were good in both in the late 60s and early 70s, but as we moved through the 1970s the football program sank some while the basketball program sustained it's consistency into the 1980s. The late 80s and 90s saw a swing back to football but the drop in basketball was due to Dickey not giving a F about basketball. We regained some momentum in basketball in the late 90s but fell off in the Buzz years until Pearl showed up. Had he not F'ed up, we likely would have never had a dip in basketball. Barnes is far and away the best coach we have ever had in basketball and I would say better than any coach we have had in football during the modern era
 
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#6
#6
Just a VolinTears said:
Tennessee will always be a football school
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No. It's a basketball school at the moment while we're still competing in the NCAA tournament. We're not a blue blood in either sport, and we've had far more national relevance in basketball than football for the entire 25.3 years of this century. Football generates exponentially more revenue, BUT based on performance, basketball is our best sport
 
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#12
#12
Depends on what you mean.

Football from a fan perspective will always be king because when people think "Vol Nation" they think a sea of orange at Neyland, the T, etc.

If you mean in actual results, we're stronger in basketball than football in sustained success in the past 20-25 years.

But it kinda doesn't matter, being second fiddle to Tennessee's football fandom is hardly anything to be ashamed of, especially considering our rep as a basketball fandom is pretty good. We've been packing TBA for pretty much 20 years now since the Pearl days, with some dips but even during the Martin years through Barnes first 2 seasons we still had great attendance.
 
#13
#13
VolsSportsFan said:
Depends on what you mean.

Football from a fan perspective will always be king because when people think "Vol Nation" they think a sea of orange at Neyland, the T, etc.

If you mean in actual results, we're stronger in basketball than football in sustained success in the past 20-25 years.

But it kinda doesn't matter, being second fiddle to Tennessee's football fandom is hardly anything to be ashamed of, especially considering our rep as a basketball fandom is pretty good. We've been packing TBA for pretty much 20 years now since the Pearl days, with some dips but even during the Martin years through Barnes first 2 seasons we still had great attendance.
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When I click on the Ticket Forum on this site during the NCAA tournament and all of the posts are for regular season baseball tickets, that tells me we aren’t a basketball school.
 
#18
#18
Many of my SEC buds outside of maybe UGA/Bama, are entirely envious that we've been in the mix in major three the last few years.

We always want championships, but I think White is about 47 years old, and if he keeps us on the tracks, no reason why we won't stay in the mix, and get a Natty in FB or MBB at some point.
 
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#20
#20
DarkVolder said:
A legitimate question these days is are we a basketball or football school? I wouid argue more a basketball school these days. More recent high level success in basketball this century than football more conference titles and post season success and better coaches, Jerry Green , Bruce Pearl and Rick Barnes def trumps Dooley , Butch and Pruitt. Football makes more money but i think since 2000 we are known more for our hardwood success than on the grid iron.
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We are an all sports school. But any school that is an all sports school is a football school first. Because football is the most popular and highest revenue generating sport in America, so unless you simply have no history in football like Kentucky or Kansas, you’re going to be a football school.

Look at LSU, Ohio State, Texas, Oklahoma and others that have had as much if not more success than Tennessee in basketball. Their default is football. Ours is too. Always will be.
 
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#22
#22
It’s football. Always has been. Always will be. Winning in the other sports is fun and all, but I would trade off all of the other sports completely sucking if UT was a top 5 machine every year with some natty’s sprinkled in.
 
#23
#23
TXbenVol said:
It’s football. Always has been. Always will be. Winning in the other sports is fun and all, but I would trade off all of the other sports completely sucking if UT was a top 5 machine every year with some natty’s sprinkled in.
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Thank goodness our AD doesn't think like this. Granted we are a football school, but that doesn't mean we should sacrifice other sports as a result
 
#25
#25
Never understood why Tennessee isn’t considered a blue blood in football. Up until 2002 we were the winningest program in last 75 years. The train wreck after Fulmer really hurt us historically. Here is some facts leading up to 2002:

Tennessee enters the upcoming college football season as the sport’s winningest program for the last 75 years.

During the period from 1926-2001, Tennessee teams have amassed a winning percentage of .73305 and a record of 589-204-33, edging out traditional Southeastern Conference rival Alabama’s .73012 percentage.

Not surprisingly, the 1926 campaign marked the first for Neyland as head coach of the Vols after serving as an assistant in 1925. For his career, Neyland amassed a record of 173-31-12 (.829) in 21 seasons at the helm and built UT into one of college football’s most storied programs.

Fulmer, entering his 11th season, ranks second only to Neyland in career winning percentage at an SEC school in league history. Fulmer’s mark of 95-20 (.826) is second only to Neyland’s .829 percentage entering the 2002 campaign.

Fulmer, who ranks as the fastest coach in SEC history to reach 75 wins, is just five victories away from winning his 100th game. His 95 wins in his first 10 seasons ranks fifth in NCAA history and he begins the upcoming season as the SEC’s winningest active coach in league games with a 63-13 mark against conference rivals.

Rounding out the Top 10 in winning percentage since 1926 are – Ohio State (.72846), Notre Dame (.72846), Michigan (.72237), Oklahoma (.71525), Penn State (.70865), Nebraska (.70282), Texas (.68811) and Southern California (.68182).

Also representing the SEC were Georgia (13th), LSU (15th), Florida (21st), Auburn (22nd), Arkansas (26th), Ole Miss (28th), South Carolina (73), Mississippi State (87th), Kentucky (90th) and Vanderbilt (99th).

The major conference breakdown is SEC (8), Big 10 (4), Pac 10 (4), Big 12 (3), ACC (2) and Big East (1
BernardKingGOAT said:
No. It's a basketball school at the moment while we're still competing in the NCAA tournament. We're not a blue blood in either sport, and we've had far more national relevance in basketball than football for the entire 25.3 years of this century. Football generates exponentially more revenue, BUT based on performance, basketball is our best sport
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