As of last year, I will pull for Tennessee as long as it doesn’t get in the way of my Tigers. That university wrote a check for my cousin’s (who is an LSU fan born and raised here in Louisiana) chemotherapy and stem cell transplant. It was right at a million dollars in medical bills, he would have never paid off. He got an IT job at Tennessee so he was an employee, with only about two years there when he became sick.
Anyway, I said all of that to say this. I hated Tennessee with a passion all of my life. Since the days of Carlos Groves doing the hack a Shaq and Tennessee and LSU getting into a scrap on the court, but they extended themselves to help my cousin when they weren’t expected to and it lifted a million dollar weight off of my cousin and my family. I understand it’s fun to talk about them, but they’ve made me a fan.