BudKilmer

The removing of the Lady Vols had little to do with cost and more to with marketing and branding. We were one of the last, if not the last, schools to use the word lady for our athletic department. We were also one of the last to combine the women's and mens athletics departments. In theory, your brand will grow and be more powerful under one logo and nickname. I hate to see the tradition leave, and I understand that the Lady vols earned a lot of respect and tradition, but I do see the benefit of having one logo across the board. In the long run this will not be an issue, it just hurts a lot of people now, but I think it was the right call handled very poorly. The UT athletic department continued to say, no we are not changing, and then out of nowhere they release a statement and changed. People felt lied to and betrayed. More than losing the "lady" tag, how about losing the go awful baby blue color scheme that they use. Makes no sense that all the old money boosters who scream tradition anytime UT uses black or grey in football, baseball, or basketball uniforms, but they are the same ones who are diehard supporters of the lady vols basketball team. If you look at the crowds of most Lady vols game they are made up of mostly old people and have had season tickets to football and basketball for years. Why was baby blue ok for women, but they were outraged when we used black or grey, and even threatened to stop donating and give up season tickets if we wore black uniforms again or wore a helmet that wasn't the traditional white with orange power T. That is your typical Tennessee fan, never satisfied. Always complaining and saying if they changed this or did that we would be best in the country again. I'm a Tennessee alum and life long fan so I can get away with saying our fans are never satisfied. Lets not worry about what the logo says or what color we wear and just care about winning and in an honorable way.

Sadly, Arkansas has a grey alternate uniform that has been worn more than Tennessee's smokey grey uniform (they wore it twice last year) and I don't believe grey is an Arkansas color. That being said, I think people need to get over the whole its not a school color when it comes to black and grey. Its an accent color and a grey alternate color. It is not like Arkansas is coming out with orange in their uni's or Tennessee is wearing Crimson. The alternate uniforms when done with class look great for one or two big games a year and the recruits love them. Tradition doesn't change because you wear an alternate uniform.