KNOXVILLE – Raymond James Stadium is nearly 700 miles from where Tennessee plays its home games.
The Volunteers still may be playing a de facto home game in the Outback Bowl in Tampa on New Year’s Day.
Ticket sales again are strong for a Tennessee bowl game, and though there may not be a repeat of last year’s TaxSlayer Bowl, when the orange-clad droves overtook Jacksonville, it may be pretty close.
Chris Fuller, Tennessee’s associate athletic director for external operations, said Friday that Tennessee quickly sold its initial ticket allotment and has requested more from the Outback Bowl in the last two weeks.
“One of the things that’s changed quite a bit is how the ticket allocations work for the bowl games, certainly since we were down there the last time for the 2008 game,” Fuller said in a phone interview. “The initial allocation was 8,000. We have gone back a couple of times. I think the total that we’ve taken and accounted for right now is 12,000.”