Tennessee Vols: Phillip Fulmer 'not a big fan' of neutral-site games

When Tennessee opens the 2018 season against West Virginia at Bank of America Stadium in Charlotte, N.C., it will mark the fourth straight year the Vols will have played a nonconference game at a neutral site.

It might be the Vols’ last neutral-site game for the foreseeable future.

“I’m not a big fan of them, to be honest with you,” Vols athletic director Phillip Fulmer said during a radio appearance Wednesday on “The Swain Event” on WVLZ.

The perk of neutral-site games is that the Vols still get seven home games, plus the neutral-site game, meaning they play just four true road games.

And the payout for neutral-site games is in the seven figures.

What will UT earn for playing WVU in Charlotte?

Tennessee and West Virginia each will earn a guaranteed payout of $2.5 million. That figure could expand to $3.2 million for each team depending on attendance for the game.

Last year, when Tennessee played Georgia Tech in the Chick-Fil-A Kickoff Game at Mercedes-Benz Stadium in Atlanta, each team received a payout of $2.85 million. The Labor Day game was televised on ESPN.

The haul in 2016 was even bigger, with Tennessee and Virginia Tech each collecting $4.3 million for the game at Bristol Motor Speedway, which drew 156,990 fans, a single-game college football attendance record.

“It’s kind of a new phenomenon out there that people are basically doing business with your business, whether it’s Atlanta, Charlotte or Dallas,” Fulmer said on his WVLZ appearance of neutral-site games.

Of course, home games generate revenue hauls in the millions, too, in addition to bringing in dollars to Knoxville businesses.

“We’re not going to take a home game away from Knoxville. It’s too important to the university and the businesses here,” Fulmer said on his radio appearance. “We want to be good partners with our city and state.”

Neutral-site games are an alternative to scheduling a home-and-home series with a power-conference opponent. In the years those home-and-home series yield home games, it creates a favorable schedule with the possibility of an eight-game home slate.

But in the years those games are on the road, it means seven home games and five true road games.

The SEC requires its teams to play at least one nonconference opponent from a Power 5 conference each year. Games against independents BYU, Notre Dame and Army also fulfill the requirement.

When will next neutral-site game be?

Looking at Tennessee’s future schedules, the 2021 season seems like the first realistic option for another neutral site game.

The Vols’ 2019 schedule is set. They’re set to play eight home games, hosting Georgia State, BYU, Chattanooga and Alabama-Birmingham in the nonconference slate.

Tennessee has three nonconference games scheduled for 2020. One of those is a road game against Oklahoma – the Sooners will travel to Knoxville in 2024 – and it seems unlikely Tennessee would add a neutral-site game, which would mean just six home games.

That leaves 2021. The Vols are set to host Bowling Green, Pittsburgh and South Alabama, with one nonconference slot still open.

Tennessee has road nonconference games on the docket in 2022 and 2023 against Pittsburgh and BYU, respectively, making neutral site games unlikely in those years.

What’s the cost for 2018?

Tennessee’s payout for its home nonconference games in 2018 is relatively modest, at least in terms of college football guarantees.

East Tennessee State and Charlotte each are set to receive a guarantee of $500,000, and Texas-El Paso is due $1.4 million, for a total of $2.4 million in guaranteed payments. The neutral site game will more than offset that.

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The Vols dished out $2.5 million in guarantees last season, with Massachusetts and Southern Mississippi each earning $1 million and Indiana State collecting $500,000.

In 2019, the Vols’ guaranteed payments will total $3 million, with more than half going to Alabama-Birmingham ($1.55 million). BYU will not earn a guarantee in 2019 and will not pay the Vols any money for their return trip in 2023.