What Kirk Herbstreit said about Tennessee fans trying to take over Ohio Stadium Saturday night
It’s not that Kirk Herbstreit doubts Tennessee fans could take over Ohio Stadium for Saturday night’s College Football Playoff game at Ohio State. It’s just that he has to see it to believe it.
Herbstreit posted on social media on Thursday to clarify comments he made during an appearance earlier this week on Pardon My Take.
“I’d never doubt Vols fans traveling for their team anywhere in the country,” Herbstreit posted on X. “It’s more tough to imagine Ohio State fans giving them the opportunity to buy their tickets. That’s the tough thing to imagine.”
A leaked presale code on Ticketmaster last week helped Tennessee fans do just that, giving them a jump on ticket access. It was also reported earlier this week by Awful Announcing’s Ben Koo that 42% of resold tickets on SeatGeek have gone to Tennessee residents, though the total numbers of tickets sold on the site was not reported.
Koo estimated that Tennessee fans could fill 18-22% of the Ohio Stadium crowd — the stadium capacity is 102,780 — and that fans of “usual visiting teams” take up 5-12% of the stadium. The Vols were given an allotment of 3,500 tickets for the game, per College Football Playoff rules.
No. 9 Tennessee at No. 8 Ohio State, Saturday, 8 p.m. ET, ABC/ESPN
Ohio State athletic director Ross Bjork last week went going on Columbus radio and asking Buckeye fans not to resale their tickets to Tennessee fans.
“Don’t sell your tickets,” Bjork said during an appearance on The Fan 97.1-FM WBNS. “Tennessee fans, they’re rabid fans. They are going to invade the Shoe. Let’s make sure we don’t have as much orange in there as people think.”
Ohio State is planning to ‘Scarlet The Shoe’ for Saturday night’s game, scheduled for an 8 p.m. Eastern Time start on ABC and ESPN, with the Buckeyes wearing scarlet jerseys and scarlet pants for the first time since 2021.
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Herbstreit, the former Ohio State quarterback and longtime ESPN college football analyst, will be on the call alongside Chris Fowler.
‘They may be getting 30,000 people in there? No way’
He was asked on Wednesday’s episode of Pardon My Take about Tennessee fans talking in the lead up to the game about having an abnormally large number of fans in the stands Saturday night.
“What’s Ohio Stadium these days? Over 100,000,” Herbstreit said on the Barstools Sports podcast. “Basically three percent of the stadium is going to be in orange … they may be getting 30,000 people in there? No way.”
Herbstreit addressed those comments in his post on X.
“If I misrepresented that I apologize,” he wrote. “Never questioning Tennessee fans traveling but more about, will they have access to get thousands of fans in there. Hearing they could have as many as 20,000-30,000 which would be WILD to see at The Shoe! Be fascinating to see Saturday — can’t wait!”
