Kentucky tight end Mikkel Skinner has alleged that Tennessee used artificial crowd noise during the Volunteers' 34-6 victory over the Wildcats at Neyland Stadium on November 7, 2026. In a video posted to Instagram, Skinner said the stadium speakers played music and fake crowd noise whenever Kentucky faced third down on offense, while the natural fan noise was noticeably quieter when Tennessee scored.
"I ain't going to lie, it was loud. But I started peeping what Tennessee was doing. The fans, when Tennessee scored on offense, that was not nearly as loud. But when we were on third down, it was loud because the speakers was pumping fake crowd noise," Skinner said. He added that the sustained volume was impossible for fans to maintain naturally.
Kentucky entered the game as the least penalized team in the conference but was flagged for seven offensive penalties in the loss. Only two were procedural — an illegal formation before a punt and a false start on a third-and-2 at the start of the third quarter.
When contacted on November 9, the University of Tennessee declined to comment on the allegations. Tim Berry, the broadcast engineer for the Vol Radio Network with 34 years of experience, refuted the claim on Facebook, stating he had direct access to the public address feed and confirmed no crowd noise was piped into the stadium.
Neyland Stadium holds the scientifically verified record for the loudest crowd peak at a college football game, reaching 130.3 decibels during the third quarter of Tennessee's 26-10 win over Alabama on October 17, according to the UT Health Sciences Department of Audiology and Speech Pathology. Similar accusations surfaced in October 2024 when Alabama radio broadcaster Chris Stewart claimed the Vols manufactured noise during a 24-17 loss; Tennessee officials, including athletic director Danny White and tight ends coach Alec Abeln, dismissed those claims as well.
A Knox News investigation later in the 2024 season found no evidence to support the allegations of artificial crowd noise at Neyland Stadium.
