Had an interesting convo recently with a good friend of mine who’s a big Tennessee Volunteers fan. He’s a college football junkie — been to tons of SEC stadiums (Neyland, LSU, Georgia, Bama, etc.) and was even at the Ohio State vs. Tennessee CFP game last year. So he’s got a decent sample size when it comes to gameday atmospheres.

His opinion of the Shoe caught me a little off guard. He said the environment felt “very NFL-like.” Not in terms of the size or passion — he acknowledged it was loud and packed, especially during big moments — but more in how the gameday presentation felt.

He said:

There were multiple pro wrestling theme songs blaring over the speakers throughout the game (think “Stone Cold” or “The Undertaker” intros).
The band,  didn’t play nearly as much as the Pride of the Southland Band does at UT games.
During TV timeouts, there were a bunch of “skits” involving Brutus, including a “race” where an OSU fan raced a so-called “Vols fan” in overalls… The Vols guy “fell down like 5 times,” and the whole thing was, in his words, “a bad comedy routine.”

His takeaway was that it felt more like a NFL game than a classic college football atmosphere. 

Is there something to this?

Are we leaning a little too much into “entertainment” and not enough into tradition?
Do we underutilize TBDBITL during games?
Do the in-game skits and sound effects enhance or cheapen the experience?
And for those of you who’ve been to SEC stadiums — is their gameday more authentic?

Curious what you all think. I’ll always be proud of the Shoe, but I do think it’s fair to self-reflect a bit — especially if we want to keep that college football magic strong.