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Tennessee Athletic Director Asks Fans to Help Cover Celebration Tab

Unsurprisingly, Neyland Stadium needs some repairs after Saturday’s upset win over Alabama.

Zach Koons

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The cigars were passed around, the goalposts were brought down and general pandemonium broke out after Tennessee upset Alabama on Saturday night in Knoxville.

Now the Volunteers are asking for help cleaning up after a 52–49 thriller. 

A few hours after the celebration began–and certainly while it was still ongoing–Tennessee athletic director Danny White took to social media to capitalize on the program’s remarkable victory. He asked fans how much they could donate to “cover the tab” for the raucous evening, sharing a link for the Volunteers faithful to chip in. 

Considering Neyland Stadium is missing a set of goalposts and is set to host a game against Tennessee-Martin next Saturday, White and the athletic department likely will be working hard this week to make sure the playing field is restored.

Though it surely won’t come cheap, school president Randy Boyd had no problem watching the chaos break out after the winning field goal. With a cigar in hand, the university leader was asked how much the celebration would cost, a question that he shrugged off. 

“It doesn’t matter,” he said. “We’re doing this every year.”

Now up to No. 3 in the latest AP Poll, the undefeated Volunteers (6-0, 3-0 SEC) will look to continue their forward momentum in Week 8 against the FCS Skyhawks.

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Zach Koons
ZACH KOONS

Zach Koons is a programming editor at Sports Illustrated who frequently writes about Formula One. He joined SI as a breaking/trending news writer in February 2022 before joining the programming team in 2023. Koons previously worked at The Spun and interned for the Atlanta Journal-Constitution. He currently hosts the "Bleav in Northwestern" podcast and received a bachelor's in journalism from Northwestern University.

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