The path to the College Football Playoff got a lot clearer for Tennessee last Saturday. Not only did the Vols take care of business against UTEP in Neyland Stadium, they also saw teams ranked ahead of them from the SEC lose. Ole Miss fell on the road to Florida while Alabama got blown out at Oklahoma. That doesn’t even take into account Texas A&M suffering its third loss of the season after getting beaten in quadruple overtime by Auburn. Just another weekend across the Southeastern Conference. The chaos moved the Vols from the first team out of the 12-team field to solidly in the bracket. Where they are exactly will be announced on Tuesday night. It is expected, though, that Tennessee will be near the cutline for hosting a CFP game, a privilege earned by being seeded No. 5 through No. 8. While their placement ahead of rivalry week is important, Vols head coach Josh Heupel knows it can only mean so much before the end of the year. “There’s a lot of football to be played,” Heupel said. “That’s for everybody across the country. It’s for us. And focus on the task at hand. We have to be our best on Saturday.” Although the Vols could end up hosting a first round game in the postseason, they are not locked into the field. A loss to Vanderbilt would send them out of national championship contention and into a bowl game. To make matters even more precarious, this year’s Commodore team is a far cry from their bottom-dwelling past. Head coach Clark Lea and quarterback Diego Pavia have led Vandy to bowl eligibility with wins over Alabama and Virginia Tech highlighting the season. On Monday, UT running back Dylan Sampson reiterated the in-state battle’s postseason implications. “Yeah, everybody in the building knows the reality of the game, and you know, how much it means,” Sampson said. “It basically is a playoff game. Take care of business and handle what it is, but we got to go and attack every detail this week.” The Tennessee-Vanderbilt series is one that has been dominated by the Vols, as the East Tennesseans own an 80-32-5 record all-time against the mid-staters. Secondary’s Growth One of the biggest question marks surrounding Tennessee heading into the season was the secondary, due to the roster churn from the end of 2023. However, the group has answered the bell week-after-week. The Vols have the fourth-best defense in the SEC in terms of passing yards allowed (185.5) and are ranked second in the league in points allowed per game (13.1). The team’s two outside corners made their mark again against UTEP, as Rickey Gibson III forced a fumble and Jermod McCoy hauled in another interception. Will Brooks and Boo Carter also have made significant contributions throughout the year. On the whole, the Vols have forced 10 interceptions through 11 games. McCoy and Brooks are tied with the team lead with three. While picks aren’t the definitive stat for secondary success, the group has grown into quite the opportunistic one.

Champions League: Juventus beat Man City, Barcelona into knockout stageLive streams of Taylor Swift’s sold-out Eras Tour concerts in Toronto give devoted fans a window into the spectacle of outfits, surprise songs and elaborate stages from one of the biggest cultural events in recent memory. As the massive tour inches toward its final three shows in Vancouver early next month, feeding Swifties’ insatiable appetite has become a nightly tradition for a handful of live stream hosts based all over the world. They act as ringleaders for tens of thousands of viewers witnessing Swift’s constantly evolving show through unofficial channels. “I never saw it being as big as it is,” said Tess Bohne, one of the personalities credited as a pioneer of the Swift live streams. “There is a big idea of community (and) being present without being there.” Broadcasting unauthorized concert live streams on social platforms such as TikTok, Instagram and Facebook isn’t an entirely new phenomenon, but it’s one that’s been amplified with Swift’s tour. As their popularity grows, the streams are sparking conversations about copyright law and the delicate balance between protecting intellectual property and allowing listeners to embrace their fandom. “We’ve gone beyond art being a one-way conversation from the artist to the audience,” said Jay Kerr-Wilson, an IP lawyer and co-leader of Fasken’s Technology, Media and Telecommunications Group in Ottawa. “Copyright owners, generally speaking, are being more flexible and they’re not necessarily (thinking) black-and-white.” Representatives for the singer did not respond to requests for comment. For fans, the lines are already blurred. Bohne got wrapped up in the Swift live-streaming phenomenon nearly two years ago after she attended the second night of the Eras Tour, in Glendale, Ariz., and found herself consumed by the experience for days afterward. “(Often) you go to a concert and you’re like, ‘That was great, let’s move on with my life,’” the 33-year-old explained in a video call from Salt Lake City. “But there was something different. It was like, ‘No, that wasn’t enough. I’m not done.’” Eager to relive the high she felt, Bohne chased down the TikTok profiles of fellow Swifties streaming other stops on the tour. With little technical experience, she began rebroadcasting their videos, with credit, on her own TikTok profile. She would place an iPad playing their feed in front of her phone’s camera, and then swap it out with her other iPad when she found a user with a better angle of the concert. The crude setup initially drew a few thousand viewers, she said, and with more effort put into the productionher audience has grown to 100,000 to 200,000 during peak moments. Since her initial broadcast, Bohne estimates she’s streamed more than 110 of Swift’s concerts in a split-screen format, streaming the concert in one corner and munching on snacks in the other while discussing all things Swift with a chat room of strangers. Some fans donate cash, and her social media status has helped attract influencer partnerships. But the stay-at-home mom of three children said this is primarily a labour of love. Bohne is credited by many of her contemporaries as the one who inspired them to take a shot at hosting their own Eras Tour with live commentary. “A lot of people say it’s like religion for them,” explained Lucas Chalub, a Twitch streamer and longtime Swiftie. Chalub first experimented with hosting streams in August 2023. Rumours swirled that the singer might announce the release date for one of her re-recorded albums on stage in Los Angeles, so many Swifties sought out live feeds, which included his impromptu setup that night. “A lot of people joined,” remembered the 27-year-old sports journalist from Argentina. “That’s the first night that I said, ‘Why not do this every night?’” Chalub said he usually draws on streams from 10 to 15 concertgoers who are often aware their recordings might get picked up by the streaming hosts. Many bring power banks to recharge their devices and sometimes a backup phone. “We are not the heroes that people think we are,” Chalub added of his fellow streamers, crediting fans on the ground who do their work pro bono. “The real heroes are the people in the venue spending — or wasting — their time trying to live stream for us instead of enjoying the show.” The legality around live streaming Swift’s concerts is murky. In the simplest terms, the rebroadcasting of copyrighted music without a licence isn’t allowed, and platforms such as YouTube and TikTok have sometimes shut down live feeds mid-stream at the behest of record labels. It happened to Ammir Shar, a 25-year-old streamer from Blackpool, U.K., who saw his YouTube feed for the fourth Toronto concert yanked down while the show was in progress. Hosts say they worry about racking up too many takedown notices, which can risk permanently shutting down their channels. Usually after a live stream ends, they delete the footage from platforms like YouTube. However, they say attempts to silence them won’t amount to much. When one streamer falls, sometimes two others turn up. Copyright owners are still grappling with that perspective, especially when unsanctioned live streams can impact other financial stakes, said Kerr-Wilson. In Swift’s case, she sold the streaming rights to her “The Eras Tour” film to Disney Plus for US$75 million. Arguably, the lawyer suggested, a company might take issue with similar options on the market, such as a live stream. But even that seems to be an evolving conversation. “People have realized that social media and user-generated content isn’t the enemy, and, in fact, can be a powerful way to engage with fans and to be part of the conversation,” he said. “I think the trend is going to continue.” While Swift hasn’t publicly said much about the streams, several streamers believe she is aware of them. They also argue the vast majority of people tuning into their feeds already have an investment in Swift’s success. Last November, a group of technologically savvy Swifties launched Swift Alert, a phone app that sends out alerts for the highlights of each Eras Tour show. Inside the app, the creators also launched a game called Mastermind — named after a Swift song, of course — where fans can win prizes by guessing which of Swift’s rotating selection of outfits she’ll wear for each “era” of her performance. Using Swift Alert in tandem with the live streams, many fans tune in for the standout moments of the three-hour concert. “A lot of people compare it to fantasy football,” Shah said. “This kind of stuff brings us closer together.” With the Eras Tour set to end in Vancouver on Dec. 8, many live streamers say they’re uncertain how the future looks. Recently, Bohne experimented with a live stream from pop singer Meghan Trainor’s concert to see if there’s similar interest. While it was enjoyable, she said the experience wasn’t quite the same. Others have started streaming Sabrina Carpenter’s Short n’ Sweet Tour. They say her shows are closest to Swift’s because Carpenter is a natural at witty banter, performs nightly surprise songs and changes up her outfits. “I’ve considered doing a few other (musicians, but they) are more like normal concerts — the artist on the stage with a microphone in one outfit, just singing their songs,” said Shah. “It’s not something that people at home will be like, ‘What outfit is she going to wear?’” Some wonder how live streaming will look without the intrigue of Swift’s tour. Added Bohne: “No concert is like The Eras Tour.”

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