It is already being billed as the largest college football game in history. It’s not going to be at Ohio State or Michigan or Penn State. Not Tennessee, Alabama or even Texas. All of those college campuses boast stadiums that will hold over 100,000 fans but, there is a bigger venue on the horizon.
Some gridiron dreamer came up with the idea awhile back to have a college football game at the racetrack at Bristol, Tennessee. It turns out that the raceway, which is one of the most famous short-tracks on the NASCAR circuit, is almost exactly half way in between the University of Tennessee and Virginia Tech.
Folks have been speculating about just such an event for several years now but in 2016, on September 10, it will become a reality and the Vols and the Hokies will take the field in front of an estimated 160,000 fans which, will be the largest crowd in NCAA football history.
Bruton Smith, the owner of the track, told the press, “We want to make this a huge, huge deal. Our goal is to set a world record for the largest attended football game in the world.” Coaches Frank Beamer and Butch Jones were on hand with track officials to make the announcement which brought tumultuous cheers from the crowd.
Coach Jones said in an interview at Bristol, “To be part of football history is something that’s very important to both our universities, our student athletes and everything.”
To date the biggest recorded attendance at a college football game was noted this past season when Michigan hosted Notre Dame at the “Big House” on their Ann Arbor campus and 115,109 fans showed up to cheer on the Wolverines. NCAA record books note that Notre Dame played games back in the 1920’s at Soldier Field in Chicago where the crowds were estimated at around 120,000.
Virginia Tech is located at Blacksburg, Virginia and the University of Tennessee is located in Knoxville. Draw a line between the two campuses and, almost exactly in the middle, you will find the Bristol Motor Speedway.
The race track at Bristol has been in business for over 52 years now but has yet to host its first football game. Track official Jerry Caldwell said, “I think you’ll see that the sight lines are great and are going to be very similar to what you would see in a college football stadium.”
