I have made some calls today and here's what I have been told. A year or so ago, the SEC changed their bowl ticket allotment policy. Basically they have parameters or limits on the number of tickets each conference school gets. The reasoning is that schools were promising big ticket sales and then were not selling the tickets. Schools were eating the tickets from their bowl profits and the bowl games weren't full. Most importantly, the bowl game/sites were limited in the number of tickets they could sell themselves because of the promised allotments from schools.
So the SEC put in a limit on school allotments and let the bowls have the ability to sell more tickets themselves.
For example, Arkansas' allotment for the Outback Bowl is 3,000 tickets which covers basically your team, band, administrators, etc. I'm sure a few went to some high level donors, but not all the season ticket holders were given the opportunity to by tickets from the school.
Tennessee's number is very similar in somewhere around 3500, which is why when you called the ticket office you were re-directed to ticketmaster or the Music City bowl's web site.
This is an SEC policy. Big 10 doesn't have this policy which is why you can buy tickets from the Purdue website.
This is the first I have heard of this policy so I don't know if it was started last year in COVID or exactly when.
But that's my understanding of what has happened. I don't think it's something that's been communicated very well at Tennessee or at other conference schools or by the league office. At least I wasn't aware of it.
So the SEC put in a limit on school allotments and let the bowls have the ability to sell more tickets themselves.
For example, Arkansas' allotment for the Outback Bowl is 3,000 tickets which covers basically your team, band, administrators, etc. I'm sure a few went to some high level donors, but not all the season ticket holders were given the opportunity to by tickets from the school.
Tennessee's number is very similar in somewhere around 3500, which is why when you called the ticket office you were re-directed to ticketmaster or the Music City bowl's web site.
This is an SEC policy. Big 10 doesn't have this policy which is why you can buy tickets from the Purdue website.
This is the first I have heard of this policy so I don't know if it was started last year in COVID or exactly when.
But that's my understanding of what has happened. I don't think it's something that's been communicated very well at Tennessee or at other conference schools or by the league office. At least I wasn't aware of it.
Last edited:
