Lady Vols basketball pays $50K to buy out second game of Colorado home-and-home series
Lady Vols basketball has decided to pay $50,000 to buy out the second game of a home-and-home series with Colorado, Knox News has confirmed.
The Buffzone reported on Thursday that Colorado coach JR Payne said the Buffaloes were having a "very hard time" getting nonconference games on the 2024-25 schedule.
They were supposed to host Tennessee this upcoming season after UT beat Colorado 69-51 on Nov. 25, 2022 in Knoxville. But when the staff of new Lady Vols coach Kim Caldwell began putting together the 2024-25 schedule, Tennessee could not find a date with Colorado that worked for both schools, according to a Tennessee spokesperson. The option of pushing the game to 2025-26 was suggested, but no agreement could be reached, and UT chose to buy out the game.
How the end of the Stanford series affected Colorado series
One of the reasons Tennessee bought out the Colorado game was the unexpected end to the Stanford series prior to the 2023-24 season.
The Colorado series, which was started during former coach Kellie Harper's tenure, was meant to supplement the Lady Vols' trip to Stanford every other season and make it a two-game western road trip. It was a longstanding home-and-home series dating to 1988 except for the COVID-shortened 2020-21 season.
The cancellation of that series led to Tennessee asking Colorado to postpone the game for a year to find another game to partner with it.
In the 17 away games of the Stanford series, Tennessee had a second game scheduled out west on 11 of those trips. The Lady Vols played UCLA four times, along with Portland State, Oregon State, Arizona and Long Beach State. Four of the six times they did not play another game out West with the Stanford matchup, Tennessee was on a multi-game road trip.
Had the series continued, Tennessee would have played at Stanford during the 2024-25 season, and the Colorado road game could have been played in conjunction.
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UT benefits in multiple ways from buying out the game. It now will have an additional game at Food City Center and save money on travel costs, which outweigh the $50,000 to buy out the game.
Tennessee has a number of nonconference games already set for Caldwell's first season. The Lady Vols will host Florida State on Dec. 4 in the ACC/SEC Challenge, travel to Memphis on Dec. 18 and face Iowa in New York on Dec. 7.
Tennessee also will host UConn after a one-year hiatus from the historic series, and Middle Tennessee State, which last season beat UT for the first time ever. It was the first game of a four-season series.
Cora Hall covers University of Tennessee women’s athletics. Email her at cora.hall@knoxnews.com and follow her on Twitter @corahalll. If you enjoy Cora’s coverage, consider a digital subscription that allows you to access all of it.
This article originally appeared on Knoxville News Sentinel: Lady Vols basketball pays $50K to buy out 2nd game of Colorado series
