The Vols have a history of playing in some high profile non-conference regular season games. Whether it was playing Southern Cal in the early 1980s, the Cal Golden Bears in the mid 2000s, Oregon, Oklahoma and Virginia Tech in the last half decade, or Notre Dame in multiple decades, the Vols have generally played tough non-conference schools in the regular season.
And that doesn’t look to change in the near future.
Georgia Tech is up next in 2017, West Virginia is coming up in 2018 and a trip to BYU is on tap for 2019. On Monday, Tennessee then announced a renewal of the series with Oklahoma in 2020 and 2024. And while that will make for compelling drama, it doesn’t have the novelty factor that some Tennessee fans desire.
But there are a few other teams Vol fans have wanted to see Tennessee play for years, and there are some that have emerged recently that would make for intriguing matchups for the Vols in the near future.
But even if these couldn’t happen in the regular season, seeing them in happen in a bowl game would be just as good. All we want is to see Tennessee play one of these teams soon. Here are the top ten non-conference match-ups we’d like to see the Vols play in the upcoming seasons.
