Tennessee has won five out of their last seven games.  They finished the regular season at 7-5, in a tie for second place in the SEC Eastern Division.

And their bowl game destination will be?  Well, the Vols will likely be heading to the Outback Bowl in Tampa, or the Cotton Bowl in Dallas.  Both games are played on New Years morning.  Both games would be a major step up from where the program was one year ago, when they stayed home for the holidays.

The year was 1984.  "Who's The Boss" debuted on ABC.  Prince's "Purple Rain" is released, and Carl Lewis wins four gold medals in track and & field at the Summer Olympics.

And Kentucky's football team beat Tennessee's football team.

Since then, Tony Danza stopped cleaning houses in Connecticut, Prince changed his name to a symbol and then back to Prince, and Carl Lewis had a memorbale turn singing the National Anthem before an NBA game.

And Kentucky has yet to beat Tennessee again.

In 2005, quarterback Jay Cutler led Vanderbilt to a come from behind win over Tennessee at Neyland Stadium.  It was such a big deal to the Commodores and their fans that they produced a DVD, titled "Victory in Knoxville."

It was their first win against the Vols in 23 years. Vanderbilt finished 5-6 that season. 

In 2009, the Commodores look much, much worse than that 2005 team, or even the 2008 squad that went to a bowl game for the first time in a quarter century.

I have gone back and forth on this prediction all week. 

The Vols had momentum heading to Oxford.  They had won three out of four games, including a 56-28 pounding of Memphis.  A defeat so devastating Tommy West lost his job immediately thereafter. 

Then three Vols freshman football players, Mike Edwards, Nu'Keese Richardson and Janzen Jackson, were arrested early Thursday morning for attempted armed robbery. 

Ok, I’ll admit it. I believe there is some truth to a few of the popular conspiracy theories. Not the one that says 9/11 was planned and executed by the White House, and not the one that maintains the moon landing was really shot in a Hollywood studio.

But in 2009, when it comes to the charges that the Southeastern Conference has made sure Florida and Alabama would play for the league championship?

OK, I'll say it.  NASCAR's playoff system had become as exciting as Dave Clawson's 2008 offense.

Jimmie Johnson has the best car, best crew, best technology (and yes, he can drive well too)...

I've never been able to explain to my friends up north just how large a state Tennessee is. 

Memphis and Knoxville share the same "TN" after the comma, but the cities are as far apart, and as different as can be... as are the football programs that represent their respective universities.

(Editor's note.  Using the word "as" four times in one sentence...

Steve Spurrier.

Just the mere whisper of the name of the Johnson City native used to give Vols fans the chills, because from 1993-1997, Spurrier owned the Vols.

The quietest I ever heard Neyland Stadium was in 1996, after Tennessee fell behind 7-0 on the opening drive against the Gators.  Spurrier turned down the chance at a long field goal in the rain, instead going for it on 4th and 11.  Danny Weurfell hit Reidel Anthony for a touchdown, and the UT crowd was immediately silenced.  Florida would eventually take a 35-0 lead, and win 35

Ok folks, first things first... Full disclosure.  I have been a Yankees fan since I was a little kid.  I was eight years old when I went to my first game.  It was April of 1981, and the Yankees beat the Texas Rangers 5-1. 

One of my fondest childhood memories was watching the Yankees rally with two outs in the bottom of the ninth to beat the California Angels in the summer of 1983.

To this day I still think the George Brett pinetar ruling was originally correct, and never should have been overturned.

Don Mattingly is my favorite athlete

Today the Florida rivalry is tops to a majority of Vols fans, but few football rivalries can complete with the history, the tradition, the respect and dis-respect of Tennessee/Alabama.

The series started all the way back in 1901. The Crimson Tide currently hold a 46-38-7 advantage.