(photo via @SmokeyLowdown on Twitter)
The NCAA should be ashamed of themselves. Is this how you treat your student athletes? What you’re seeing above is a group of young soldiers, spending weather delays and time between games UNDER THE BLEACHERS like a group of fucking lepers. The crooked committee thought it’d be a good idea to send the Tennessee Vols to a school like Southern Miss (yuck!) where there isn’t a visitor’s locker room or any updated facilities to speak of. Lo and behold, there were two weather delays and a postponement in Game 1 alone so players had to retreat to the sewers of the stadium with warm hot dog juice and dip spit leaking through the cracks. Hell of a place to hold a Super Regional, imo.
Call me crazy, but I don’t think this is a coincidence. It’s a well-known fact that the national media hates the Vols. There are still many that don’t like Tony Vitello, the Vols, and how these lads carry themselves. Everything points to foul play. They vetoed Tennessee as a host for their Super Regional despite literally every factor used in this decision being in the Vols’ favor. Better strength of schedule, higher RPI, better Power-5 record, and we swept our regional. Not to mention, Lindsey Nelson Stadium holds more fans and OH YEAH it has a visitor’s locker room. I can’t be convinced that the committee didn’t check the weather forecast for Hattiesburg and make the call with that in mind, knowing there was bad weather coming and knowing the Vols squad would have nowhere to go. No better way to kill momentum than some inclement weather and body stiffness from sitting on concrete all day. Southern Miss officials offered up their basketball locker room… across the street. “Thanks but no thanks, we’d rather not load up all of our shit and haul it across the street, then haul it back if/when play resumes.” Shame on the NCAA.