Reckon who’ll play in next year’s ‘Sell Your Soul Bowl’? | Sam Venable
Anybody from Knoxville who traveled to Orlando to watch the Tennessee football Volunteers crush Iowa, 35-0, in the Cheez-It Citrus Bowl at Camping World Stadium on Jan. 1, and then hustled back to Knoxville in time to witness the Tennessee men’s basketball Volunteers beat Norfolk State, 87-50, on The Summitt court in Thompson-Boling Arena at Food City Center on Jan. 2 deserves an award.
For being an orange-blooded Vol fan?
Nah. Tons of UT devotees follow football, men’s basketball, women’s basketball, volleyball, baseball, track and field, rowing, swimming and diving, tennis, golf and other athletics with a passion unmatched in any college town in America.
For logging all those mega hundreds of miles in under 24 hours?
Nah. Commercial airline pilots and seasoned business commuters do that all the time.
What they really deserve recognition for is being able to say “Cheez-It Citrus Bowl at Camping World Stadium” and “The Summitt court in Thompson-Boling Arena at Food City Center” without having to (a) consult an official list and (b) draw an extra breath.
Yes, I am a geezing prude.
Yes, I realize money not only speaks louder than ever in sports; it screams.
Yes, I’m a product of that innocent age before the Rose Bowl became the “Rose Bowl Presented by Prudential Financial College Football Playoff Semifinal.” And don’t get me started about all the other bowl games and stadiums whose collective souls have long since been sold to the highest pastry, mayonnaise, insurance and security company bidder.
Why, I even harken back to the Pleistocene Era of collegiate sports, before millions of name-image-likeness dollars were lavished upon 19-year-old kids who can play the transfer portal like the stock market and ditch their college loyalties faster than a Los Vegas divorce.
Humph! In my day, “student athletes” (an oxymoron back then too, come to think of it) got their big bucks and fancy cars the old-fashioned way: Under the table.
In fact, the whole sordid mess makes me want to grab a Classic Speed Stick Casting Rod and Reel Combo Sponsored by Lew’s and Daiwa, hook up my Tracker Pro Team 170X Bass Boat Powered by Mercury and Bass Pro Shop to the Adjustable Trailer Hitch Underwritten by B&W on my F150 Pickup Truck Presented by Lance Cunningham Ford, swing by the Weigel’s-Pilot-Casey’s-Food City-Kenjo-Flying J-Ingle’s Association of Fine Fuels to top off the tank and go fishing.
It’s too early to announce what lures I’ll be using. The offers are still coming in.
Sam Venable’s column appears every Sunday. Contact him at sam.venable@outlook.com.
This article originally appeared on Knoxville News Sentinel: Sam Venable: Reckon who’ll play in next year’s ‘Sell Your Soul Bowl’?
