Tennessee will play a regular-season game against North Carolina State University on Saturday. Not at Neyland Stadium or on the Wolfpack campus in Raleigh, but in Charlotte. Why?
Easy answer even for a casual fan. Television.
Nearly a quarter of the way through the 21st century, we accept that television dictates the When and sometimes the Or of college football.
A matchup between quality SEC and ACC opponents would be a festive occasion for either campus. But there won’t be a Navy Vol anchored outside the stadium in Charlotte. Instead, we have the Duke’s Mayo Classic.
Such early-season events are relatively new in college football. They are also another manifestation of television’s growing dominance. Would the once-unthinkable expansion of conferences have happened without television?
For Tennessee, it all started with the 1987 Kickoff Classic on ABC. The Vols traveled to East Rutherford, New Jersey, to open the season against Iowa. Hey, a road trip to New York and a great game. All good.
Then came the 1990 Pigskin Classic, a Disney production on NBC in Anaheim, Calif. UT and Colorado, two preseason top-10 teams, tied 31-31.
The Aug. 26 kickoff remains the earliest kickoff in Tennessee history. Still, it’s another big game and a fun destination.
The Vols weren’t invited to another “special” home opener until 2012, the Chick-fil-A Kickoff in Atlanta against NC State. The fact that ESPNU got the game may have meant it wasn’t the national headliner.
Neither was played in the 2017 opener in Atlanta against Georgia Tech or the 2018 opener in Charlotte against West Virginia.
Today, the 2016 Battle at Bristol, televised by ABC, is a different story, a marquee event. The game against Virginia Tech at Bristol Motor Speedway, which drew a record crowd of 156,990, would never have happened without television.
So, here we are in Charlotte. Or, your local ABC affiliate.
I’ll end with a timeline of Tennessee’s history with the tube.
September 30, 1939: The first televised college football game was between Fordham University in New York and Waynesburg College.
October 20, 1951: Tennessee’s first television appearance was a 27-13 victory over Alabama in Birmingham, on NBC.
January 1, 1953: The Vols’ second appearance was a 16-0 loss in the Cotton Bowl to Texas, Robert Neyland’s last game as coach.
1953-1964: A total of seven games were televised over a 12-year period. Three were against Alabama, one against Auburn, one against LSU and two were bowl games.
1962: The Alabama game is the first broadcast from Neyland Stadium.
1965: The first time two games from the same season were broadcast on television, Ole Miss in Memphis and the Bluebonnet Bowl.
1966: First time two regular season games are televised, Georgia Tech and Kentucky.
1973: First televised three games: Alabama, Ole Miss and the Gator Bowl.
1977: Johnny Majors returns home but none of his 11 games are televised.
1981: Last season that no UT regular season games were televised. Mizlou won the Garden State Bowl.
1984: Georgia and Oklahoma successfully sue the NCAA over television broadcast restrictions. The floodgates open.
1985: Seven of eleven regular season games are televised during the Sugar Vols’ SEC championship campaign.
October 26, 1985: ESPN broadcasts its first game from Knoxville, a 6-6 tie against Georgia Tech.
1989: Pay-per-view arrives, UCLA and Ole Miss. (UT’s last PPV match will be Butch Jones’ first match in 2013. The arrival of the SEC Network in 2014 eliminates PPV.)
September 5, 1991: ESPN moves UT’s season opener at Louisville to a Thursday night. The Vols have opened their season on Thursdays three times since then.
1991: For the first time, all UT games are televised (including two PPVs).
November 12, 1994: The Vols beat Memphis, 24-13, the last Tennessee game not televised by anyone.
Mike Strange is a former reporter for the News Sentinel. He currently writes a weekly sports column for Shopper News.
This article was originally published on the Knoxville News Sentinel: Why Tennessee football is in Charlotte on September 7. TV commentary on the games.
