Volunteers athletic director John Currie recently talked about neutral site games for Tennessee football. Here is why they should continue in the future.
Recently, Vols A.D. John Currie hinted that he would continue to explore neutral site games for Tennessee football.
However, he made comments that were a bit unsettling. Here’s the first thing he said in his comments about it:
“The first priority is always going to be our fans in Neyland Stadium and the impact Tennessee football has on Knoxville, greater Knoxville and the Tennessee community.”
Okay, yes the fans at Neyland Stadium are important, as is the greater Knoxville community. But let’s face it. Tennessee football’s fertile recruiting ground is not really based in the greater Knoxville community, even if that’s where the fans are.
The fertile recruiting grounds are in the greater Atlanta area and now the greater Nashville area. And wouldn’t you know it, those are two popular neutral site destinations.
So Tennessee football needs to play as many neutral site games as possible in major areas. They serve multiple purposes.
For starters, the Vols get national exposure when they do that in the early weeks. The Battle at Bristol was a huge draw and likely impressed many recruits.
Secondly, they get to use that area to make an impact on top recruits. As a school with limited recruiting in its local area but solid recruiting across its state and surrounding areas, Tennessee football needs to continue to stretch its brand and break through the pipeline other schools have.
And finally, neutral site games are just fun. They give fans all over the country a better chance to see their team in person, and everybody loves to get involved.
To be fair to Currie, he still seems to support neutral site games. That one comment, though, was just a bit unsettling.
And he needs to be fully on board with these events.