UMass will play Tennessee at Neyland Stadium on Nov. 14, 2017. The game will put $1 million into the Minutemen's athletic budget.
photo by Tennessee Athletics
KNOXVILLE, Tenn. — The University of Tennessee will host the University of Massachusetts at Neyland Stadium on Nov. 4, 2017.
The Minuteman will receive a cool $1 million to play the game at 102,455-seat Neyland Stadium and receive 3,000 tickets, including 650 complimentary.
This will be the first meeting between the schools in football.
UMass, is currently a member of the Mid-American Conference, but will be competing is an independent during the 2016 and 2017 seasons. The Minutemen elevated to the Football Bowl Subdivision in 2011 after playing in the Football Championship Subdivision.
The schools are linked by the fact they each won their last football national championship in 1998. The Vols won the BCS title while the Minutemen were the champions in FCS (then I-AA).
Tennessee last played a school from the state of Massachusetts in the 1993 Hall of Fame Bowl, when the Vols defeated Boston College, 38-23 on New Year’s Day, Jan. 1, 1993. That was Phillip Fulmer’s first official game as the Vols’ head coach.
The Vols and Minutemen met on the hardwood this past March as Tennessee knocked off UMass in the second round of the NCAA Men’s Basketball Tournament in Raleigh, N.C., 87-67.
(E-mail Larry Fleming at larryfleming44@gmail.com and follow him on Twitter @larryfleming44)