This Record Is Made to Be Broken

The 106,297 who showed up Saturday night was a Tennessee record, a record crowd to watch UCLA play football anywhere and the ninth-largest in NCAA history. Tennessee’s previous record was 106,212, set the week before, against Nevada Las Vegas, and its latest record is expected to last only two weeks, until the Volunteers play host to Florida.

The previous largest crowd to see UCLA was 105,464 for the 1976 Rose Bowl game against Ohio State. Also, Saturday’s crowd was the largest in NCAA history in a game played outside Michigan Stadium.

They Blew the Roof Off the Joint Tennessee’s Neyland Stadium became the nation’s biggest football facility somewhat by accident. Its latest expansion was to be 10,583 seats, which would put Neyland’s capacity at 102,485, or 16 seats behind Michigan. But when builders tore the roof off the north stands to put the expansion deck on, they found that each removed post yielded enough room to put in an extra seat. In this case, there were 59 extra seats, enough to make Neyland Stadium’s capacity 102,544, the biggest in the country.

Best Deals for Those Who Waited The game was sold out, but plenty of tickets were available. At 9 a.m. Saturday, the scalpers’ price was $100 for a $22 ticket. By 12:30 p.m., it had dropped to $50, and by 4 o’clock to $40. After a few drops of rain fell, it dropped to $30, and by game time scalpers were lucky to get face value.

“I want to sell them and get home,” one scalper said. “It’s on TV, and that’s the best seat in the house.”

Kent Smokes Bruins in Second Half Peyton Manning’s favorite receiver, Joey Kent, was responsible for Tennessee’s last seven receptions against UCLA.

Kent, who is among the leading candidates for the Biletnikoff Award, caught all his passes, including a 53-yard touchdown, in the second half.

He now has 128 career receptions, four more than the previous Volunteer record set by Thomas Woods.