Tennessee fans wanting to see the Vols play in person had better already have their tickets in hand.

Tennessee, No. 11 in the Associated Press and USA Today/ESPN coaches' polls, is sold out for the remainder of the regular season and the SEC tournament.

The Vols (20-5, 11-3), the SEC East champions, play host to Kentucky (18-10, 8-6) on Wednesday (8 p.m., TV: WVLT) before traveling to Vanderbilt on Saturday (TV: WVLT).

The Commodores had Saturday's 2 p.m. game at 14,316-seat Memorial Gym against UT sold out a couple of weeks ago, according to an athletic administrator.

It's Vanderbilt's third sellout of the year, and it marks the fifth consecutive road game the Vols have sold out.

The SEC tournament, which runs March 9-12 at 18,000-seat Gaylord Entertainment Center in Nashville, was sold out before tickets were available to the general public.

"It basically sold out through the schools receiving their allotments,'' said SEC assistant commissioner Craig Mattox. "There were 1,100 for each school. Then, you have a lot of the seats that are suites, which are sold through the Gaylord Entertainment Center.

"The SEC office had an allotment of 3,000 for officials, staff members and corporate sponsors.''

The Vols sold out their allotment in January.

If there's any good news for fans looking to attend a UT game, it's that scalping is legal in the state of Tennessee.

Of course, that good news can turn bad if the tickets purchased are counterfeit.

Mattox said that was a problem the last time the SEC tournament was held at Gaylord in 2001.

"On each of our tickets this year we'll have a silver security foil that's holographic,'' Mattox said. "In the hologram, you can read the words 'authentic,' and 'secure.'

"But some of the counterfeiters will put holograms on the ticket — you can buy such material at the store. If you don't see those words, it's not a valid ticket.''

The tickets figure to be steep, especially the first couple of days when most all of the schools are still in the tournament.

A reserved seat for the entire six-session tournament costs $300. Each session ticket has a $50 face value, and there are two games for sessions 1 through 5. Session 6 is the championship game at 1 p.m. March 12.

The SEC tournament will be in the Georgia Dome the next two years before moving to Tampa in 2009 and back to Nashville in 2010. The 2011 tournament is set for the Georgia Dome, and in 2012 the New Orleans Arena.

Pearl Deal: UT athletic director Mike Hamilton and first-year coach Bruce Pearl have continued to discuss Pearl's pending contract extension.

"I don't see any reason why we can't have an agreement in principal by the SEC tournament,'' Hamilton said. "I think that's a reasonable expectation.''

Hamilton said he plans to make Pearl one of the highest-paid coaches in the SEC. It's likely Pearl will make between $1 and $1.5 million per year based on that projection.

Pearl's annual package is $800,000, and he'll receive a bonus of $45,000 for winning the SEC East.