Tennessee expecting reduced capacity at Neyland, no tailgating this fall

Chancellor Donde Plowman provided University of Tennessee students with an update today, laying out the latest details in regards to the COVID-19 procedures that will be in place this fall. Below is the full video, which briefly touches on football.

“We don’t know what will happen with football yet,” Plowman said Thursday. “We are hopeful the team will get to play. If they do, it will not be to a full stadium, and there will likely be significant reduced capacity. If we do play football, we won’t have tailgating on campus.”

The SEC, ACC and Big 12 did not follow the lead of the Big Ten and Pac-12, which postponed their football seasons earlier this week. The Southeastern Conference had already moved the season’s start back to September 26th, while slashing non-conference matchups. They’ve already added two conference games to each team’s schedule, giving each school a ten game slate to play this season.

Tennessee added games at Auburn and Texas A&M at home.

The University has yet to announce plans on attendance at Neyland stadium, but now we know that they will not allow tailgating on campus.

Chancellor Plowman stated that there are currently 28 active cases of COVID-19 on campus.

Tennessee athletics director Phillip Fulmer said in July that he was hopeful to get Neyland to 50 percent capacity this fall, but 20-25 percent was probably more realistic.

The SEC is set to open fall practice beginning on August 17th.