For the second straight year, Tennessee is playing football in January. And for the second straight year, it seems like Volunteers will see a healthy amount of orange in their Florida bowl game.

Tennessee associate athletic director for external operations Chris Fuller told the Chattanooga Times Free Press that the team had sold out its initial allotment for the Jan. 1 Outback Bowl in Tampa, Fla., and have requested more tickets.

“One of the things that’s changed quite a bit is how the ticket allocations work for the bowl games, certainly since we were down there the last time for the 2008 game,” Fuller said in a phone interview. “The initial allocation was 8,000. We have gone back a couple of times. I think the total that we’ve taken and accounted for right now is 12,000.”

That is a lot of tickets sold two weeks ahead of the game. And these are just tickets sold through the university. It is very possible many other fans bought tickets directly through the Outback Bowl.

It could very well be something close to a Tennessee home game at Raymond James Stadium if this is any indication of ticket sales for the bowl game in general. Northwestern has a very small alumni base (less than 9,000 undergraduates and other Big Ten teams often outdraw Northwestern in its Chicago suburb home) although the team travels well for bowl games. That did not stop Tennessee from overwhelmingly outdrawing a 6-6 Iowa team last year in Jacksonville. Iowa too has a strong fan base but did not muster much excitement for last year’s bowl game.

Tennessee certainly is attractive for bowl games because of how well the fans travel to these games. The Volunteers are certainly putting their money where their mouth is in turning out for the game.

Tickets available on the secondary market right now on TiqIQ range from $88-$570.