Tennessee announces change to academic schedule to accommodate opener

Tennessee students got good news Tuesday with the announcement they not only get to see the Volunteers football team return to action Sept. 1, they also won’t have to worry about any distractions.

And by “distractions,” of course we mean “class.”

The school announced there will be none of those when the Volunteers play host to Appalachian State in a game set to kick off under the lights.

UT athletics director Dave Hart explained the move in an email to the Knoxville News-Sentinel:

“I believe that everyone involved in the ongoing collaboration that led to this logistical conclusion feels good about the fact that we were able to meet our collective priority to not interrupt the academic schedule on that Thursday,” he said in the email statement. “We look forward to the exciting opportunity to represent our conference on the SEC Network to open the 2016 season on the first night in September.”

Of course we would be remiss not to mention that day of classes was not eliminated. It was merely moved to the end of the semester.

The question of whether or not Tennessee football is “back” figures to be asked quite often this offseason.

Changing the academic schedule for a football game can only be viewed as an indication the answer is yes, right?