Vols fans will do anything to ensure Neyland Stadium is the place where visiting fans’ hopes and dreams come to die.
With President Donald Trump planning to attend the Texas-Tennessee game Sept. 26, his presence introduces a whole new set of X factors.
Trump has spent time at dozens of sporting events but how have the home teams fared in those games? Is there a presidential pick-me-up?
We took a look. First, some caveats:
- Trump has attended plenty of individual sporting events that didn’t have “home teams.” We didn’t count golf, UFC fights and NASCAR races.
- Many of the events were neutral-site games. We did the best we could to determine the proper “home” team based largely on team ranking at the time. Some events, like the Super Bowl, have a designated home team. The Army-Navy Game, which Trump has attended multiple times, sometimes plays at neutral sites and sometimes does not.
- Trump has made plenty of other appearances when he was out of office, such as in 2021 when he attended Game Four of the World Series in Atlanta, a game the Braves would ultimately win.* But we’re only looking at games when he was the sitting president.
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The result?
Of the 13 games Knox News reviewed, the home team prevailed most of the time: 7 out of 6 games.
What about Saturday?
No. 1 Texas is the 4-point favorite, meaning for the home team trend to continue, the No. 13 Vols would have to pull off an upset.
*I attended Game Four of the 2021 World Series. The game was memorable. Trump’s
visit was less so, but maybe it was because I was going too crazy cheering.
Tyler Whetstone is an investigative reporter focused on accountability journalism. Email: tyler.whetstone@knoxnews.com; X: @tyler_whetstone; Signal: twhetstone141924.39
This article originally appeared on Knoxville News Sentinel: Trump will be at Tennessee vs Texas. What does visit mean for the Vols' chances?
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