UT Vols-Memphis basketball to play three-game series, including one in Nashville

The Tennessee-Memphis basketball series officially is back on.

UT announced the three-year deal with the Tigers on Wednesday, two days after Tennessee coach Rick Barnes and Memphis coach Penny Hardaway commented on the return of the rivalry.

Tennessee will travel to face Memphis on Dec. 15, 2018, at FedEx Forum. Memphis visits Thompson-Boling Arena on a date yet to be determined in the 2019-20 season. The contract ends with a neutral-site meeting at Nashville's Bridgestone Arena on either Dec. 18 or Dec. 20, 2020.

Barnes has hopes of turning the Nashville meeting into a statewide event with more teams than the Vols and Tigers.

"We like the home and home. We’d also like to make it a big day of basketball in Nashville — not just us, but bring in other teams within the state and just make it a day to really promote basketball," Barnes said. "That’s the reason we’re going there that third year. I would imagine if it goes the way we want it to, it won’t just be us playing that day when we go to Nashville. It’ll be, again, like some kind of jamboree or extravaganza — something that will really promote basketball in the state of Tennessee.”

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The universities originally agreed to a home-and-home series in an agreement dated Nov. 29, 2017.

According to the contract, if either Tennessee or Memphis backs out of the contract, the school that backs out will owe the other school $90,000.

The contract stipulates that the visiting team will receive 50 complimentary tickets and have the option to purchase 50 additional tickets. It also indicates the host school in each meeting will attempt to accommodate ticket requests. 

The universities added an addendum dated Feb. 19, 2018, that added the third game in Nashville to the contract.

The teams last met in January 2013. Tennessee holds a 14-11 edge in the rivalry, but Memphis has won three in a row dating to a 2011 clash in the Maui Invitational.

The Vols will host both Georgia Tech and Wake Forest in Knoxville in other nonconference games during the 2018-19 season,

Tennessee also will be part of the NIT Season Tip-Off at the Barclays Center in Brooklyn on Nov. 21 and 23. The Vols will play two games as part of a four-team field that features Kansas, Louisville and Marquette.