Months after the Vols bought out a scheduled series with the Tar Heels that was slated to start next season, the Music City Bowl arranged a meeting for them anyway, ending a wild weekend of speculation by officially extending invitations to both on Sunday afternoon. And with the two programs unable to figure out a way to keep each other on the docket by themselves, the committee in Nashville was more than happy to mediate and bring them together at LP Field on Dec. 30 (TV: ESPN, 6:30 p.m.). "When we actually talked about potential matchups, we let them know that Carolina would be our first choice to play for a variety of reasons," UT athletic director Mike Hamilton said during a media teleconference. "One of those obviously is our fan base had expressed interest in playing Carolina after the cancellation of the series. We thought that would be a nice opportunity." "The decision we made related to the series was about the 2011 season only. That could have been Carolina, it could have been Arizona, Michigan State, whomever, it just happened to be North Carolina. We tried to play a neutral-site game, we tried to play them in a future year, and that’s why we went ahead with the cancellation. We’re excited about playing North Carolina, they’ve got a great program."
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