Vols to Host Akron in Sold Out Neyland Stadium

Two days ago, Tennessee announced that the Florida game next Saturday, September 24 was officially sold out. 

Now, two days later, Tennessee has announced the sellout of the upcoming Akron game that will take place in Neyland Stadium this Saturday. 

The news isn't necessarily a big surprise considering Danny White tweeted out Tuesday that less than 1,000 tickets remained.

However, when looking at it from a broad approach, the Akron sellout is surprising. 

Akron is an out of conference group of five opponent that hasn't had a winning season since 2015, and it's a strong possibility the Vols will put the game out of reach before halftime. 

For Tennessee to sellout a game where the opening line was 50 points is telling of how much this program is growing under Josh Heupel. 

In fact, the sellout of Saturday's game marks the first sellout of a non-conference game since 2015 against Oklahoma. 

In that game, Oklahoma served as a premier power five opponent for the Vols to host, far from what Akron will be Saturday. 

For the last Neyland Stadium sellout against a non-power five opponent, you have to go all the way back to 2014 when the Vols hosted Utah State in Week one. 

The Utah State game had the perk of it being the first game of the season working in its favor, something Akron doesn't have. 

The fact a Week 3 game against a subpar group of five opponent such as Akron is sold out shows that Vol Nation will show overwhelming support for the program if the product on the field is exciting and games are won. 

The sold out Knoxville crowd of 101,915 people will witness the Zips and Vols in action beginning at 7 p.m. ET on Saturday. With the win, the Big Orange will start the season 3-0 for the first time in 2016–a season the Vols finished 9-4 and defeated Nebraska in the Music City Bowl.

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