U of Tennessee drops BYU from 2023 schedule

Apparently the volunteers did not want to come to Provo. I am a firm believer that they would lose if they did. I think that a $2 million buyout to avoid that seems reasonable.



https://www.espn.com/college-football/story/_/id/33928599/tennessee-volunteers-virginia-cavaliers-open-2023-college-football-season-nashville



I also think that the average Joe east Tennessee hillbilly Vol fan will be much happier to see his team play a lesser quality opponent, either at home or much closer. This helps them "feel" like winners. After Zach to Micah, then OT, then Ty'Son's touchdown to win, I bet many UT fans left Neyland stadium that night with the idea, "I don't ever want to play BYU again." And, they made that happen.



The athletic department makes a lot of Volunteers happy with this decision. My question now is what does the BYU AD do with the extra cash?



My vote: put USU back in somehow in 2023, hire several more staff to be more on par with rest of P5, and a down payment on some suite expansions in LES.

I'll just drop this here. This guy's rant is pretty epic:

https://youtu.be/_bFjb6g6XxY

BYU has moved their game with Southern Utah from November to September 9 in 2023.



https://www.deseret.com/2022/6/1/23149647/byu-football-schedule-change-with-southern-utah-university-tom-holmoe-guarantee-payment-amount



An amendment to the original BYU-SUU contract was signed May 3, 2022, by Holmoe and SUU athletic director Debbie Corum. The amendment calls for BYU to pay SUU an additional $50,000 to travel to Provo “to help offset the cost of rescheduling a 2023 game between (SUU) and Western Illinois.”



If BYU schedules SUU in the future, beyond the 2023 game, that $50K payment would be applied toward the total payment for that future game. The contract states that both sides will engage in a “good faith” effort to schedule a future game.



Interestingly, BYU has the same clause in the original contract with SUU that it used to get out of a series with Utah State, but is not invoking it. The Cougars can cancel without penalty, all their contracts say, if they join a Power Five conference.



The original agreement — which hasn’t changed, except for the new playing date — calls for BYU to pay SUU $425,000 for the visit.

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BYU 2023 Schedule

September 2: TBD

September 9: Southern Utah (FCS)

September 16: @ Arkansas

September 23: Beginning of Big 12 schedule