Tennessee Volunteers fans knock down a goal post after their team defeated the Alabama Crimson Tide at Neyland Stadium. The school is facing a big fine – and they want help paying for the new goal posts.
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Tennessee Volunteers fans knock down a goal post after their team defeated the Alabama Crimson Tide at Neyland Stadium. The school is facing a big fine – and they want help paying for the new goal posts.
Donald Page/Getty Images
The University of Tennessee is disciplined by its athletic conference after euphoric football fans rushed onto the field in a sea of orange to celebrate a biting shootout win over Alabama on Saturday.
The school is also looking for help to pay for new goal posts: the crowd tore them down and carried them out of the stadium. And as the raucous celebration continued, videos showed a crowd of people carrying a goal post down the street and throwing it into the nearby Tennessee River.
The goal post is escorted out of the stadium pic.twitter.com/F2m2HMPogO
— Gifdsports (@gifdsports) October 15, 2022
Volunteer fans were too impatient, SEC says
The Southeastern Conference hit the university with a fine of $100,000 for violating the SEC’s “Competition Area Access Policy”, citing the imperative for schools to keep their fans and players safe.
The Tennessee Athletic Department appears to be taking that fine in stride — but after the win and celebration, it appealed for help paying for new goal posts for Neyland Stadium in Knoxville. He is seeking up to $150,000 for this job.
“Do you all remember how we tore down the goal posts, pulled them out of Neyland and threw them in the Tennessee River?” the school tweeted. “Yeah, that was great. Anyway, it turns out that to play next week’s game, we need goal posts on our pitch. Could you all help us out?”
Call for donations — from a school pay his trainer $5 million every year, and after a nationally televised match seen by millions on CBS – came despite UT President Randy Boyd say in the midst of euphoria that “It doesn’t matter” how much it costs to replace the goal posts, if it comes to beating Alabama.
Randy, what’s it gonna cost? “It’s okay, we’ll do it every year!!!” @Vol_Football @randyboyd @Vol_Sports @Vol_Sports @BarstoolTenn pic.twitter.com/eJm3bMScAq
— Hanes Torbett (@Tarheelbb) October 16, 2022
Starting at 11 a.m. ET Monday, the online funds had already raised over $80,000.
Why was this victory so important?
It was only a midseason win, but Tennessee’s 52-49 upset capped a top-10 shootout led by two of college football’s most exciting quarterbacks. The Volunteers prevailed on a field goal when time expired.
For Vols fans, the victory ended 15 years of torment at the hands of Alabama – years in which Tennessee sank into mediocrity as Nick Saban’s Crimson Tide claimed victories and national championships .
Their rivalry dates back over 100 years – in Alabama and Tennessee, “Third Saturday in October” is consistently capitalized, signifying the traditional game date. Ahead of the game, fans embrace “Hate Week” – epitomized by The famous diatribe of Irvin Carney, then an Alabama student, in 2007commonly referred to as “I hate Tennessee”.
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But on Saturday, it was Tennessee fans who celebrated, lighting victory cigars that have also long been a tradition.
Both teams were undefeated heading into Saturday. The victory of the Volunteers propelled them to third place in the standings the Associated Press rankingAlabama falling to No. 6.