6 Things Every Tennessean Has Strong Opinions About

Bring up the wrong topic at a Tennessee cookout, and the conversation can heat up fast.

Tennesseans can argue about some of these for years without anyone changing their mind.

Here are the debates you’re most likely to hear.

1. Smokey the Coonhound

Smokey the bluetick coonhound has been the Tennessee Volunteers’ mascot since a 1953 halftime contest, when applause from the crowd picked the first Smokey.

Brooks’ Blue Smokey was the last dog in line that day.

He won anyway.

A movement began in the mid-1950s to replace Smokey with a Tennessee Walking Horse, according to the university’s Torchbearer.

The idea never took off, though Walking Horses did make appearances at games until artificial turf covered the field.

Count the Smokeys since that day, and you’ll reach XII.

Smokey X, who was born in Shelbyville in 2012, began his official duties in 2013.

Smokey XI retired after the 2025 football season.

If you missed it, the university announced on March 26, 2026, that Smokey XII, a rescue named Neyland, would debut at the April 11 Orange and White Game.

2. Nashville Hot Chicken

Who makes the best Nashville hot chicken?

The Bitter Southerner says the Prince family had a falling out with their cook, Bolton Polk.

Polk left.

In the late 1970s, he opened Columbo’s Chicken Shack, where he served a version of the dish.

That launched a new debate among generations of hot-chicken devotees over which restaurant had the better food and the hotter chicken.

Before Polk passed, he taught his nephew, Bolton Matthews, to make his chicken.

Matthews and his wife opened Bolton’s Spicy Chicken and Fish in 1997.

Whichever of those restaurants you favor, you’ve picked a side.

3. Georgia’s Border Claim

Georgia’s border claim rests on the 35th parallel, which the Georgia Encyclopedia says was Tennessee’s southern boundary when it became a state in 1796.

In 1818, mathematician James Camak calculated that the 35th parallel was almost a mile south of Nickajack.

His calculations were incorrect, and modern measurements put the 35th latitude one mile north of Nickajack.

You might think the border was settled, but Georgia’s legislature has voted a dozen times to revisit the line.

Georgia received no response from Tennessee or North Carolina.

In 2008, Georgia Sen. David Shafer introduced a resolution that would extend Georgia’s northern border to the south bank of the Tennessee River, according to Nashville Public Radio.

Some Tennessee lawmakers laughed the resolution off.

Not everyone laughed.

Rep. Henry Fincher, a Tennessee legislator, stressed the state’s need for water access.

Georgia had eyed the Tennessee River as a possible water source for Atlanta, the station reported.

You can follow the same thread in the encyclopedia, which says the 2008 drought renewed attention to the water Georgia could reach if the line followed the 35th parallel.

4. Smokies Parking Fee

Great Smoky Mountains National Park doesn't charge an entrance fee.

The park had 11,527,939 visits in 2025, the most of any national park, according to National Parks Traveler.

Since March 1, 2023, you've needed a tag to park for longer than 15 minutes.

The tag costs $5 for a day, $15 for a week or $40 for a year.

Smoky Mountain News reported in June 2022 that the North Carolina House opposed the parking fee.

The park heard something different.

In an August 2022 release, the National Park Service said 85% of 3,677 correspondences expressed either strong support or constructive ideas to improve the program.

5. Tennessee Whiskey

Tennessee whiskey has a legal definition, and in 2014 two big distillers argued over it.

Business news outlet CNBC reported in March 2014 that the law required at least 51% corn, filtering through maple charcoal and aging in new, charred oak barrels.

Diageo, which makes George Dickel, lobbied to ease the barrel and filtering rules.

Brown-Forman objected.

The company, which owns Jack Daniel's, said the changes would hurt the whiskey's quality and integrity.

Legislators in Nashville planned to debate the change in House and Senate committees the next day.

Rep. Bill Sanderson, a Republican, backed loosening the definition and said the new-barrel rule posed challenges for small distillers, according to The Spirits Business.

Diageo proposed letting distillers reuse barrels and accused Brown-Forman of trying to stifle competition.

Would you accept a reused barrel under that label, or would you want only new barrels?

6. Titans in Memphis

The team that became the Tennessee Titans played its first Tennessee season in Memphis in 1997, as the Tennessee Oilers.

You'd have watched a home game that year at the Liberty Bowl, according to Memphis TV station Local 24.

The Oilers went 8-8 that year, with low attendance.

They ranked last in the National Football League in average home attendance.

In 1998, the Tennessee Oilers moved their home games to Dudley Field at Vanderbilt University.

Memphis got one season.

The 1999 season brought the Titans name, and you'd have found the team at the newly completed Adelphia Coliseum.

You can read how Memphis feels in a Local 24 report that asked whether the Titans could find support in Memphis or whether hard feelings were still an issue.