Tennessee Basketball announces dates for Checker FCC, Dark Mode and Orange Out games

Tennessee Basketball on Friday announced three game designations for SEC play. The Vols will checker Food City Center on August 31 vs. Auburn, then go ‘Dark Mode’ against LSU and will orange out the Alabama game on February 28.

The 20th-ranked Vols (7-3) have currently lost three straight games and are off until next week, when they host No. 11 Louisville (8-1) on Tuesday (7 p.m. Eastern Time, ESPN) at Food City Center.

Tennessee started the season with seven straight wins, winning five buy games at home, then beating Rutgers and Houston in the Players Era Festival in Las Vegas. Since then the Vols have lost to Kansas, at Syracuse and against Illinois in Nashville.

“Everything we’re doing wrong is all teachable,” Rick Barnes said this week on The Mike Keith Show. “And we just got to keep teaching and give these guys a chance to keep maturing and we have confidence they will.”

Season tickets sold out for third straight year

Tennessee announced in August it had sold out its allotment of 14,500 season tickets for a third straight season. It’s the seventh straight full-capacity season with over 13,000 season tickets sold and the fourth straight with more than 14,000 sold.

Tennessee is coming off back-to-back Elite Eight trips — after previously having just one Elite Eight in program history — and 57 total wins over the last two seasons.

The Vols finished 30-7 last season, after a loss to Houston in the regional semifinal. They went 27-9 in 2023-24, including winning the SEC regular-season championship, before losing to Purdue in the Elite Eight. 

A closer look at Tennessee’s SEC schedule

Tennessee opens SEC play at Arkansas on January 3 and will host Texas on either January 6. The Vols go to Florida on January 10, play Texas A&M at home on January 13 and Kentucky at home on January 17.

The bye week falls on January 20, with no midweek game, before a trip to Alabama on January 24. The Vols play at Georgia on January 27 and the month closes with the home date against Auburn on January 31.

In February Tennessee plays Ole Miss (February 3), at Kentucky (February 7), at Mississippi State (February 11), LSU (February 14), Oklahoma (February 18), at Vanderbilt (February 21), at Missouri (February 24) and Alabama (February 28).

In March the Vols go to South Carolina (March 3), then close the regular-season schedule at home against Vanderbilt on March 7.