Tennessee Basketball announces Arkansas, Florida games are sold out
Food City Center is officially sold out for No. 1 Tennessee’s SEC opener against No. 23 Arkansas on Saturday afternoon. The Vols on Friday afternoon announced both the Arkansas game and the Florida game on February 1 are sellouts.
Tennessee (13-0) and Arkansas (11-2) are scheduled for a 1 p.m. Eastern Time start on ESPN.
Four of Tennessee’s nine SEC games are now sold out, with Arkansas and Florida joining a list that already included Kentucky on January 28 and Alabama on March 1.
The five other SEC home games for Tennessee are Georgia (January 15), Mississippi State (January 21), Missouri (February 5), Vanderbilt (February 15) and South Carolina (March 8).
The Vols finished fourth nationally in attendance last season, averaging 19,664 fans over 16 homes games, with 314,617 total fans attending home games. Only North Carolina (20,593), Syracuse (20,288) and Kentucky (19,928) averaged more.
Tennessee sold out season tickets for second straight year
It was announced in August that Tennessee had sold out season-ticket inventory of 14,500 for a second straight season, making it the sixth straight full-capacity season that the Vols have sold 13,000 or more season tickets.
Tennessee last season played in front of capacity crowds of 21,678 against Illinois, Alabama, LSU and Vanderbilt. Four games were above capacity: Auburn (22,547), Texas A&M (22,322), Kentucky (22,206) and Ole Miss (21,932).
Entering last season, the Vols had finished in the top five in national attendance in the previous four non-COVID-impacted seasons. They’ve been top 20 in attendance for 19 straight years.
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The Vols have played 37 home games in front of crowds of 20,000 or more during the Rick Barnes era.
Tennessee athletics in 2022-23 was the only program to rank in the top 10 in average home attendance for football, men’s basketball and women’s basketball.
No. 1 Vols looking to tie program record for best start to a season
Tennessee at 13-0 is off to the second best start in program history. A win over Arkansas on Saturday would match the 1922-23 team for the record, after those Vols started 14-0 in a 17-game season.
The Vols went undefeated in non-conference play for just the fifth time in program history and the first since Tennessee went 6-0 in the COVID-altered 2020-21 season. The 1997-98 team was 11-0 in conference play and the 1980-81 team and 1956-57 team both went 8-0.
Tennessee has been ranked No. 1 for four straight weeks, tying the 2018-19 team for the program record for weeks spent at No. 1. The Vols have been ranked No. 1 just three times, with the 2008 team also spending one week at No. 1.
The Vols are No. 2 in the NET and No. 3 overall in the KenPom.com ratings. They’re No. 2 in adjusted defensive efficiency and No. 19 in adjusted offensive efficiency.
