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The Tennessee football program announced Wednesday that it will host the University of Massacusetts at Neyland Stadium on November 4, 2017.
This will be the first meeting between the schools in football. UMass– currently a member of the Mid-American Conference– will be competing as an independent program during the 2016 and 2017 seasons. The Minutemen elevated to the Football Bowl Subdivision in 2011 after playing in the Football Championship Subdivision.
The schools share a link by the fact that their last football national championships came in 1998. Tennessee won the BCS title while Massachusetts were the champions in the FCS (then I-AA).
The last football game between the Vols and a school from the state of Massachusetts came in the 1993 Hall of Fame Bowl, when Tennessee defeated Boston College 38-23 on Jan. 1, 1993. The game marked Phillip Fulmer’s first official game as the Vols’ head coach.
Tennessee and Massachusetts met this past March during the second round of the NCAA Men’s Basketball Tournament in Raleigh, N.C. The Vols defeated the Minutemen 87-67.
A former freelance journalist from Nashville, Jason covers Tennessee, Vanderbilt and Kentucky
