We just witnessed one of the best moments of the 2022 college football season last Saturday: Tennessee taking down perennial juggernaut Alabama in an all-timer of a win for the Volunteers.
It was a wild celebration in Knoxville — victory cigars all around, memes of Nick Saban throwing a tantrum, and a packed Neyland Stadium tearing down the goalposts and tossing them in the Tennessee River.
The photos and videos of those goalposts enveloped in a sea of orange were everywhere, the kind of marketing for a program and university you can’t buy.
Which is why I’m shocked to find out that the university … asked people to donate money to replace the goalposts.
This is serious. Look at this:
Y'all remember how we tore the goalposts down, hauled em out of Neyland and dumped em in the Tennessee River?
Yeah that was awesome.
Anywho, turns out that in order to play next week's game, we need goalposts on our field. Could y'all help us out? 🙏 https://t.co/NSMoL3SzPX
— Tennessee Football (@Vol_Football) October 16, 2022
As of publishing this, this fundraiser is nearly up to $160,000.
Before we go on, some answers to questions you might have:
2. The replacement goalposts, per WATE, cost between $10,000 and $20,000, but “officials say the rest of the money will be spent on installation fees and other repairs, like those needed on the turf.”
3. Where does the extra money go? To “the Tennessee Fund,” which gives money to other Vols varsity athletic programs.
4. The school already has a spare set of goalposts ready, as it should.
5. The SEC did fine the school $100,000.
UT FINED: The SEC has levied a $100,000 fine against the University of Tennessee after a wild, field-storming celebration after the win against Alabama. And the school is seeking donations to replace the goalposts. https://t.co/rfqAi3U7s3
— Local 3 News (@Local3News) October 17, 2022
This is the reality of higher education in 2022: When it comes to pouncing on an opportunity to fundraise at a university, every school does it. And this one’s a slam dunk: We just beat the Crimson Tide, celebrate by throwing a few bucks our way.
But framing it to the student body as, “Gee, you broke our goalposts, can you just help us out so we can play a football next week?” That’s gross.
We are scraping by at $54.6 million this year in revenue share from the league alone, forget anything else.
Whatever you can do to help, godbless. https://t.co/KTG5HjDzIr
— Pat Forde (@ByPatForde) October 17, 2022
The University of Tennessee has a $1.34 billion endowment and their athletic department brought in $143 million in revenue in 2021, but @Vol_Football is asking for donations to replace the goal posts students tore down after defeating Alabama. https://t.co/Y1z2DbIvUX
— Travis Akers (@travisakers) October 17, 2022
Optics matter, especially in a case where it seems like the school could easily foot the bill. So just don’t do it! Even if the goal here was to go viral with a little tongue-in-cheek plea, it’s negative marketing — Tennessee’s athletic program suddenly looks like one starving for cash when they’re swimming in it.
I’m going to give the last word to UT president Randy Boyd, who had this to say about the goalposts while smoking his celebratory cigar and answering the question of how much it’ll cost to replace the goalposts:
UT President Randy Boyd regarding the goal posts pic.twitter.com/k8JfsYHnfz
— Hanes Torbett (@Tarheelbb) October 16, 2022
“It doesn’t matter.”
Exactly. Don’t pretend it does.
