Tennessee, Virginia Tech to play at Bristol Motor Speedway

Published January 13, 2015

Bristol, TN (SportsNetwork.com) - Tennessee and Virginia Tech will play a football game at Bristol Motor Speedway.

The "Battle at Bristol" was formally announced during a Monday news conference. The game will be played on Sept. 10, 2016.

"There has always been a desire by fans to see a football game at our historic Speedway," said Bruton Smith, chairman and CEO of Speedway Motorsports. "We couldn't be more excited to turn this long-time rumor into a reality and to provide sports fans with an unforgettable, once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to be a part of the biggest college football game ever."

The track sits about halfway between the campuses of the two schools, off Interstate 81 in northeast Tennessee.

With an estimated seating capacity of 150,000, the game is on track to crush prior college football attendance records. The NCAA-recognized attendance record for a college football game is 115,109, which happened last month in a game between Michigan and Notre Dame in Ann Arbor.

In its inaugural year (1961), the track played host to a preseason game between the Washington Redskins and Philadelphia Eagles.

URL

https://www.foxnews.com/sports/tennessee-virginia-tech-to-play-at-bristol-motor-speedway