The CheckerBoard

This man should be treated like puplic enemy #1...Erik Ainge is boycotting the event and i applaud him for doing so.

It would be one thing if Athens, TN was 10 minutes north of Alabama off I-65, but Athens is what, an hour down I-75 from Knoxville?

Hope those almost 1,000 tickets are UT fans going in all orange.

At the risk of an avalanche of down-votes, I say really who cares. You don't want to see Saban talk, don't pay and don't go. I couldn't care less if he came to the Athens Chamber or the Knoxville QB club. Athens has always seemingly brought football-related folk in to speak and always seems to draw a good crowd. Spurrier spoke there a year or two, as did Fulmer and some former Vols.

The only negative I really see from this is from a recruiting perspective. In the future, Bama staffers/recruiters could say, "folks from your own state had OUR coach come and speak at an event...not YOURS"...thereby implying some superiority. But I think the recruiting game is a bit more sophisticated than that.

Live and let live on this one...take a chill pill and do something constructive. Let those who want to go, go...if it's not a draw, they'll think twice about who they pick next time.