Largest NCAA Football Game in the World Set!

The University of Tennessee and Virginia Tech have agreed to play a football game at Bristol Motor Speedway and expect to shatter the single-game football attendance record in what is being billed as the “Battle at Bristol.”

Track and officials from both universities formally announced the plans Monday.  The game is officially scheduled for Sept. 10, 2016.

“I full well believe we’ll play in front of the largest crowd to ever watch or have watched a football game — that’s college and pro,” Virginia Tech athletic director Jim Weaver said.

Currently the NCAA-recognized attendance record for college football of 115,109 was set last month at Michigan Stadium for Michigan-Notre Dame.  The “Battle of Bristol” is expected to seat numbers that will approach 200,000.

“It’s a chance and opportunity to be part of something extremely special that will live with you for a lifetime,” said Tennessee coach Butch Jones, who was grand marshal of the Food City 500 at the Bristol speedway in March.

Virginia Tech coach Frank Beamer has also driven on the Bristol speedway as part of a charity celebrity race in 2009 and recalls sitting in the Bristol bleachers watching races as a high school student.  “Next to Lane Stadium, this is my favorite sports venue, I promise you,” Beamer said.

“We want to make this a huge, huge deal,” track owner and president Bruton Smith had told The Associated Press. “Our goal is to set a world record for the largest attended football game in the world.”

Bristol Motor Speedway, formerly known as Bristol International Raceway and Bristol Raceway is a NASCAR short track venue located in Bristol, Tennessee. Constructed in 1960, it held its first NASCAR race on July 30, 1961. Despite its short length, Bristol is among the most popular tracks on the NASCAR schedule because of its distinct features, which include extraordinarily steep banking, an all concrete surface, two pit roads, and stadium-like seating. It has also been named one of the loudest NASCAR tracks.