Really? We're being stuck with this crap again?
There certainly are reasons why Tennessee would be an attractive proposition for Davis. The Vols play in the Southeastern Conference, which is superior to the Atlantic Coast Conference in football. And at Tennessee, the football program is No. 1 on campus. Davis will always be No. 2 at North Carolina - or 1-A at best - behind Roy Williams and his basketball powerhouse.
I'm sure that's why Bruce Pearl is out interviewing for every job he can, desperate to get away from being a basketball coach at a football school, suffering the indignity of only making $1.6 million a year. Why Billy Donovan fled Florida as fast as he could, and Rick Barnes only lasted a few scant years at Texas. It's the immutable law of college athletics, you see; you must choose between football and basketball.
Of course, none of that preceding paragraph is true. And you never hear sportswriters pushing that garbage in that direction. "Football" schools are expected to compete in basketball. At best you get a bemused "Football crazy fans come out for basketball!" stories, but no one expects their basketball coaches to inevitably flee for greener hardwoods.
And yet it's been the common refrain since UNC first thought about hiring Butch Davis. He'll never stay. It's a stepping stone. No self-respecting coach could ever tolerate a job where they're known for basketball. The Davis Exodus has been foretold, and like fundamentalists obsessed with the End Times, every word is a sign that the predictions are true. The same predictions were made last year, and the year before that, and they'll continue as long as there's college athletics in Chapel Hill. Just do me a favor, all right? Make a macro or keep a standard article around to use each year so I can just start skipping these damn things, OK?
(Oh, and with regards to the ticket thing - as one of the Carolina faithful who will be in Byrd Stadium on Saturday, tickets had to be purchased by October 10th, when no one knew whether UNC or Maryland would be any good, and as the commenters noted, they did sell out. So, I don't think Davis needs to be as worried as another coach down the road.)