Nashville Daily Times: Cal Nixes ESPN's Request to Move Cal-Vols Game to Sunday Night

No Sunday move for Vols

February 21, 2006

KNOXVILLE — A plan to move the University of Tennessee’s 2006 football season-opener against California to Sunday night has been thwarted. ESPN asked UT officials to move the game from Saturday, Sept. 2, to Sunday, Sept. 3, to accommodate the network’s request to televise the contest in prime time. Tennessee, which will host Air Force the following weekend, was intrigued. California, which makes its home debut Sept. 9 against Minnesota, was not.  Rather than push the issue, Tennessee officials expect the game to remain scheduled for Sept. 2 at an as-yet-to-be determined time. “I do not anticipate it being done at this point,” said University of Tennessee athletics director Mike Hamilton. “We were interested in moving (the game to Sunday), but I do not think California was.

“I think that process has terminated.” California athletics director Sandy Barbour was out of town during the weekend and unavailable for comment. Repeated calls to the Cal athletics offices on Monday were not returned. But a source familiar with the situation said that Cal personnel were worried about missing a full day of practice and preparation for the Minnesota game by flying home Sunday night/Monday morning. Even a chartered flight from Knoxville to the Berkeley, Calif., area would likely take six hours, getting the Golden Bears home around sunrise on the West Coast. Two years ago ESPN convinced UT officials to move the 2004 season-opener against visiting UNLV from Saturday to Sunday night. The Runnin’ Rebels agreed, and in front of a crowd of 108,625, the Vols played their first-ever Sunday game inside Neyland Stadium, winning 42-17 in the collegiate debuts of freshman quarterbacks Brent Schaeffer and Erik Ainge.

The City of Knoxville embraced the adjustment two years ago, moving the Labor Day fireworks celebration “Boomsday” into the Saturday night slot previously reserved for football. That same scenario seemed possible this time until the plans unraveled.

 

ESPN appeared to have a particular interest in broadcasting the game because Jeff Tedford’s California Golden Bears could be a pre-season top-10 team and challenge Southern California for the Pac-10 title. David Cutcliffe will make his return sideline appearance for Tennessee on the heels of its first losing season in 18 years. The network televised five Vols’ football games during the 2004-05 seasons.  Hamilton believed moving the game to Sunday night would have benefited both programs.  “It would have been unimpeded on Sunday night. It was something we were looking at strongly,” he said. “But it does not appear available to us at this point.”