A likely trip to Florida for New Year's Day is helping drive advance ticket sales for Tennessee's bowl trip.

Tennessee has received pre-orders for about 5,000 tickets for both the Capital One Bowl in Orlando and the Outback Bowl in Tampa, UT athletic director Mike Hamilton said Wednesday.

With the Vols' destination becoming clearer, Hamilton expects those numbers to grow.

"It's going very well," Hamilton said.

Florida is Tennessee's most likely destination, assuming the SEC sends two teams to the BCS.

LSU, ranked No. 5 in the BCS standings, is the most likely SEC team to receive an at-large bid.

Should Florida defeat Arkansas in Saturday's SEC championship game, UT would likely face Wisconsin in the Capital One.

If Arkansas wins, the Vols would probably face Penn State in the Outback.

Both games are played Jan. 1.

This is the first year Tennessee has sold advance bowl tickets to donors and season-ticket holders.

The athletic department mailed out questionnaires before Thanksgiving that allowed donors to commit to a certain number of tickets for each bowl game with an SEC tie-in and all BCS games except the national championship.

Fans are only obligated to purchase tickets for the bowl in which Tennessee plays.

The bulk of those sales have come from online orders.

"I feel good about the sales," Hamilton said. "The Internet has become a real tool for us."

In previous years, the athletic department did not begin receiving ticket orders until after Tennessee had accepted its bowl bid.

The new system will help the university speed up the process of getting tickets to donors, but perhaps the biggest impact from will come Sunday, when UT finds out its bowl fate.

The Outback requires UT to purchase 11,000 tickets, while the Capital One Bowl requires 12,500.

The number of additional tickets the university will buy for donors or season-ticket holders will be decided Sunday.

"What percentage of the total demand is what we're getting in now?" Hamilton said. "We've got to decide based on this demand."