The CheckerBoard

Oops, didn't mean to down vote ED here. Even though he's wrong.

Can someone get him back please.

This is such a ridiculously polarizing topic.

Hoops national championship. I'm one of those weird Vol fans that puts football and basketball on an equal pedestal. Neither one takes precedent over the other for me. A hoops national title would absolutely be an unprecedented event in our program's history that we would remember for years and years and years. A win over Bama in football would be nice, but it's only one game and we would probably forget about it come the 2014 season.

Hoops National Championship by a long shot. You hang banners and keep National Championship Trophies on display for the rest of time. Individual wins against your biggest rival are great but are not banner or trophy worthy. AS has been stated in this thread, a National Championship in Hoops would be a first for UT and we have beat Bama plenty of times in the past and will again in the future.

Gotta admit..im stunned at the split on this.. When i saw the post when it was made, i thought, "silly question" - everyone is going to say a Hoops NC..and today i read through the responses and am really shocked..Seeing our team win an NCAA tournament would be worth 10 bama wins..it's really not even close. It's one football game. We have never even made a FINAL FOUR in basketball..to win the whole deal would be, well, it would make for a lifetime memory and bragging rights for all time.

A win over bama? Yeah, its great, but if you finish the season 5-7, what's the diff? and it's one saturday. and they dont give out rings or trophies for beating bama.. Nah, man, give me a hoops championship any freaking time..i would love the publicity and the national attention and exposure the Vols would get for a tournment run like that culminating in "one shining moment" for TENNESSEE!!

A win over bama would mean much more than you imply. Beating them would signify a turning point for our football program, the program that almost everyone cares about most. Football programs carry the most bragging rights for every SEC fanbase not named Kentucky or Missouri. Basketball just doesn't mean anything to me.

I mean, if you dont care about UT basketball, then, i guess i can almost understand. It's still the University of Tennessee..and a basketball national championship would mean extended publicity for the school and our athletic program, which would almost undoubtedly spill over into football and recruiting. A win over bama would be one game, and while it COULD signal a turning point in the program, it also might not. If we beat bama, as i said, and go 5-7, did we really have a "turning point"? And we dont NEED to beat bama to signal a turning point in the program.. We could go 10-1 and win every game except bama and i guarantee that would be a lot better than going 5-7 and BEATING bama. I think folks are putting WAY WAAAAY too much emphasis on that one game.

Whereas winning a NC in BB would not only bring such overwhelming joy and pride for that year, but would potentially put us "on the map" for recruits for years down the road. Our BBall program would be elevated in the eyes of elite recruits. TB would be filled and rocking. The effects of a NC would ripple over the course of years, and throughout our whole school.. not just ONE saturday in october.. Viewing this through the prism of historical perspective....there is no doubt, to me, which would mean more to the fans and the school.

Tennessee hasn't beaten Auburn in over a decade... Tennessee also has a massive losing streak to Florida right now. A win over Florida could mean just as much as beating Bama right now. I just don't see how 1 win over Bama could ever be better than a basketball championship... Heck, I would take a winning the SEC tourney over beating Bama once right now. It's something Tennessee hardly ever does.

Completely agree with this. We were a blocked FG away from beating Bama in 2009. Had that FG been good, would we be in any different spot that we are in now? It's debatable, but I don't think so. Kiffy still would have left and Dooley still would have failed. "Turning the corer" will happen over months of recruiting, player development, and brand rebuilding. A few upsets here and there will be a sign that it is working, but an upset doesn't get you there by itself.

I'd rather go 11-1 and lose to Bama than 5-7 while beating them (or even 8-4 with a win over them). It's like us beating Florida in basketball... for a few days it's great, it's fun, we get excited, we get to say that we "own" them, but when it's all said and done, they're still going to be a 2 seed and we're fighting for a play-in game in the tourney. Bragging rights for one game don't mean as much to me if they still hold the clear advantage when taking the programs as a whole.

A lot of you guys are framing this in terms of what it does for the trajectory of the football program.

For me I choose beating Bama not because it sets us on some course for future dominance. I don't choose beating Bama because it helps in recruiting, and I don't choose beating Bama because bball means nothing to me.

I choose beating Bama for the sake of beating Bama and all of the intrinsic satisfaction that brings me. It's not about using a win as a launchpad. It's simply about beating Bama, which to me is the single most gratifying event that can happen in sport.

That's how I feel when Bama is on top. If we are talking early-2000s Bama I would take the 13-win season.

Right now I would take the Bama win. Easily.

I would have infinitely more fun the night we beat Bama than the night we closed out a 13-win season.

Ok then. Agree to disagree, I guess.

It's not about context to me. It's about the raw, visceral elation of beating Alabama in football.