The University of Tennessee will be selling beer for the first time when BYU Football comes into town, which isn't a big deal... At all.
I live in the South. While people don't hate the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints like many Utahns believe they do, they do like to poke fun and make things a bigger deal than they actually are. Not to be mean per say, but to indirectly get under our skin a bit and be annoying.
While it hasn't been confirmed that this is one of those cases, the University of Tennessee just announced that they will begin alcohol sales in their second game of the season against BYU.
Now everyone is saying this is a "trolling moment" by the Vols, and it may be, but it isn't as big of a deal as everyone thinks. The SEC actually prohibited alcohol sales for the general public in public areas until June 1st of this year. Only special zones such as loges or fanzones allowed it. Now all SEC schools have the option of selling alcohol wherever and other schools like Vanderbilt, LSU and Missouri.
Essentially, the decision was probably going to be made this year anyways, the Vols just decided to do it one week later than their home opener against Georgia State. While it may have been to mock BYU fans, the thing they don't realize is, most of the fans that are going to the game are coming from outside of Utah. Most of us are around alcohol quite frequently at concerts, weddings and other athletic events. Also, probably 50% of the people there served church missions and were around alcohol all the time while teaching. Finally, believe it or not, there are BYU fans who aren't members of the church and don't have guidelines against drinking.
Swing and a miss.
If in fact the purpose of waiting to sell alcohol until week two was to get in our faces, they are going to be almost as disappointed when they realize we can still function and not be bothered by alcohol as they are when the Cougars beat them.