The Vols Trolling The Gators Is Good For Rivalries In The Sport

The Tennessee baseball team had some fun at the expense of the Florida Gators, which is a good thing.

Welcome to the “Tennessee Thomas” newsletter written by “The Sports Renaissance Man” Chase Thomas. This is a section of the newsletter where I write about the Tennessee Volunteers. Who would have guessed? I do hope that you enjoy it and add your email below so you never miss an issue. This newsletter is delivered to your inbox, not your doorstep, daily. Happy reading.

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I’m still reeling from that interview Notre Dame Athletic Director Jack Swarbrick gave SI’s Pat Forde a few days ago. After reading the piece, I had a number of competing thoughts. However, one constant that I had was that college football fans cannot take the next decade or so for granted in the sport. The Fighting Irish AD specifically points to the 2030s as the time when college football could really look and operate like an entirely different sport than what so many of us grew up with. With Texas and Oklahoma, slivering their way into the SEC, the future of divisions in the conference is certainly up in the air. A pod-type schedule looks to be the most likely outcome when all is said and done. That’s all fine and dandy, Georgia still has not traveled to College Station for a date with the Aggies to this day and they play in the same dang conference, but could that mean even more rivalries will be pushed aside in the not-too-distant future?

It seems almost inevitable.

But there’s not a whole lot you or I can do about it. The sport is changing, and it will continue to change. One day, Tennessee and Florida may not play against one another on a Saturday afternoon in the fall. That may only happen once every couple of years or so. It’s a possibility. In a sixteen-team conference, the schedules are going to get wonky and fans are, by and large, not going to be too happy about it. Just look at the response from West Virginia and Pittsburgh fans with the news that the Backyard Brawl added more games to the slate. The catch, though, is that after four years, another long gap will take place before the two long-time rivals face off once again. It’s silly. Play the dang game every season. Take a trip to Dollywood around Christmas time and tell me the Volunteers and the Hokies should not be playing one another each season.

Rocky Top Insider @rockytopinsider

Some of the Tennessee baseball players donned the Florida Gators' football helmet following the Vols' series sweep on the diamond in Gainesville. #Vols

rockytopinsider.comTennessee Baseball Dons Florida Football Helmets Following Series Sweep | Rocky Top InsiderTennessee Baseball decided to have some fun after sweeping Florida Baseball this weekend by donning the Gators’ football helmets on Sunday.

Rivalries and the regular season are the bread and butter of college football. There is nothing better. As much as the sport continues to change, those rivalries and those regular-season Saturdays continue to keep us all engaged and entertained. The College Football Playoff and the neutral-site-regular-season games do not.

Still, it’s fair to wonder how kids on campus view rivalries in the sport nowadays. Do kids like Tayven Jackson arrive on campus and develop into a Gator Hater? Or, do most kids view other schools in the conference like any other school and pay them no mind? Well, I don’t have the answer to this question, but I do know rivalries are not dead yet. We do not need Kevin Sorbo to find that out, as a Florida Gators linebacker Chief Borders quote-tweeted a tweet from Rocky Top Insider that showed Evan Russell’s Instagram story and members of the Tennessee baseball team donning the Florida Gators helmets as a goof.