Vols Buying Out Tarheels For Buffalo...?

((HT: GoVolsXtra/Ward))

Looks that way...

UT Athletic Director Mike Hamilton told Ward today:

"It's been verbal communication to this point and in these situations there still has to be formality to any contract, and so we've let Carolina know that we're going to go a different direction since they were not able to move the game and the series to a later date in the decade," Hamilton said. "Personally, it's kind of a downer for me because I was looking forward to playing Carolina as a North Carolina native, but without the ability to move it to later in the decade, we felt like we needed to break that six-game stretch up and put a non-BCS team in there.

"We'll buy out of the series and do that and move ahead."

So much for all those quality losses Tennessee would be building in the early years of the Dooley era... this gives the Vols an eighth home game, more revenue, and an easy win to maintain bowl-eligibility...

Which, is of course, more important...

Here's what the Nation will be seeing... or, more accurately, not seeing...
It will not be a "Free Willy" moment...
((HT: ESPN/TrueBlueUBathletics))