Rachel Ohm

USA TODAY NETWORK - Tennessee

The University of Tennessee will be the site of a world record attempt next week during an effort to form the world's largest human letter by forming an enormous Power T in Neyland Stadium.

The feat will be broadcast live during NBC's "Today" program, from 7-9 a.m. Wednesday, March 29, with weatherman Al Roker doing his weather reports from the stadium, according to a news release Monday from UT. The event is part of Rokerthon, Roker's annual trek across the country to break world records.

UT is attempting to bring out 4,000 students, faculty, staff and alumni to break the record. Guinness representatives will also be on site to certify the record.

"Standing together in Neyland Stadium with 4,000 members of our Volunteer family will be a shared memory that will last a lifetime," UT Chancellor Beverly Davenport said in the news release.

Queen's University in Kingston, Canada, set the record for the largest human letter with 3,373 participants in September 2016.

As part of Rokerthon, Roker will visit five universities next week, with UT being his third stop.

The Daily Beacon, UT's student newspaper, created the entry video that helped bring Rokerthon to UT. Altaf Nanavati, a junior at UT and digital producer for the Daily Beacon who worked on creating the video, said he was surprised to learn that UT's submission was a finalist among colleges that submitted entries to participate in Rokerthon, let alone a winner.

"We were all very excited, especially with the Daily Beacon being one of the people that started this whole thing by creating the pitch video, but it’s also exciting for UT as a whole," said Nanavati, 20, in an interview. He said the decision to attempt the world's largest human letter was made because of the importance of the Power T on campus.

"We see it all the time - at football games and everything. It's a huge tradition and so we thought it would be the perfect thing to do," he said. "We felt like it was something all the students would want to be a part of."

Guinness rules require that the T be formed only by students, faculty, staff and alumni. Therefore, entry to the stadium will be restricted to those participants, Monday's release said.

Nanavati said it will be a challenge to break the record, but he thinks UT is up to it.

"In terms of logistics, it's a lot of students but it's also everybody is going to want to be a part of that. It's going to be something they can say they did even after they left UT, that they were part of that T and breaking that record," he said. "I think that's enough to get students involved and get them to come out."