The image of a University of Tennessee football player racing down the infield of Bristol Motor Speedway and a $20 million dollar payoff may turn out to be a mirage.

Apparently the only things you're going to see running at Bristol will continue to be on tires, not football cleats.

UT officials said this week that a proposed UT-Virginia Tech clash, in front of what would have been the largest crowd ever to see a college game, is a dead deal right now.

They indicated that nothing has come of Bruton Smith's offer in August to put up $40 million and build a football field inside the giant raceway to set up the game between the two schools.

Smith is the chairman and CEO of Speedway Motorsports Inc., which owns the track in Bristol.

It was anticipated that the game would draw at least 160,000 fans.

"There was never any discussion," UT President John Petersen said this week. "We were never (formally) contacted by Bristol."

Petersen's comments didn't hold out much hope that the proposed game could be restored to life.

"First, it's a miserable place to watch football, and second, they couldn't have paid us as much as they (said). They wouldn't make any money.

"Thirdly," he continued, "what we would have to think about is, we are a big part of what goes on in Knoxville, and if you move a ballgame out of Knoxville to some other place, it has a negative impact on the city."

UT Athletics Director Mike Hamilton said he has asked for a proposal from Smith's staff but never received a response. UT turned down an earlier offer to play a home game on the infield of the .533-mile track for $3.5 million.

"It's a dead issue at this point," Hamilton said, "because both Jim Weaver, who is the athletic director at Virginia Tech, and (I) have said, 'Give us a proposal; we'll try and make it happen,' and we have heard nothing."

Jeff Byrd, president and general manager of Bristol Motor Speedway, said there are no immediate plans to put Smith's plan for a football game into action.

"I am waiting on a proposal from our corporate offices in Charlotte that has not been forthcoming," Byrd said. "However, they have been very, very busy with the Action Performance acquisition."

NASCAR and Speedway Motorsports acquired Action Performance, a racing merchandise distributor, in August.

"They can only take on one major project at a time," Byrd said. "Right now, there is no new news regarding the football game that is an initiative of our chairman, Bruton Smith.

"Being in the holiday season, I certainly wouldn't expect to see anything in the short-term future," he added.

Hamilton and Weaver had discussed a possible game date after Smith made his offer to pay the schools $20 million apiece to come to Bristol. The sum would be nearly a third of UT's $64 million athletics operating budget.

Both schools have their football schedules set for years in advance, but both also indicated that they would find a way to play, even if it meant buying out a scheduled opponent.

But problems quickly arose, the foremost being television money.

UT, which expects to make about $11 million this fiscal year in broadcasting revenues, is part of the Southeastern Conference. The SEC has a contract with CBS to broadcast its members' games. Virginia Tech is a member of the Atlantic Coast Conference, which has a contract with ABC.

There were also questions about how Speedway Motorsports would generate the $40 million Smith offered the two teams.

A home game in Knoxville, where UT draws about 107,000 fans a game, brings in $3.3 million to $3.4 million a game in ticket sales.

It would take an average ticket price of $250 for a game in Bristol to generate $40 million, and it wasn't clear what Speedway Motorsports' cut of the broadcast revenues would be.

"I don't know how they could fiscally make it happen," Hamilton said this week.

He attended the Sharpie 500 race at Bristol after Smith publicly offered to host the game.

"I went up there and visited him in August, and I talked to his folks (staff) -- they're friends of mine -- in passing. I've said, 'Hey, we are ready to listen to some kind of proposal.' "

Hamilton said an offer has never been forthcoming. Still, he didn't completely shut the door on a game at Bristol.

"I don't imagine it would be a great place to watch a football game," he said. "But at the same time, there is some intrigue as it relates to the promotion (of) the game of college football and what it could mean to have the number of fans there you could possibly have."