ESPN released its initial Football Power Index rankings for the 2025 football season on Tuesday morning and the ratings system is high on Tennessee football.
The Vols come in at No. 10 in the preseason rankings with a 17.4 rating. FPI gives Tennessee a 38.5% chance to make the College Football Playoff and a 2.3% chance to win the 2025-26 national championship.
The predictive metric ranks the 20 best offenses and defenses in the sport with Tennessee making the cut on both. Tennessee’s offense projects to be the 12th best in the country next season while its defense projects to be the eighth best in the country.
Josh Heupel’s offense projecting to be one of the nation’s 15 best is surprising given the departure of starting quarterback Nico Iamaleava to the transfer portal. The Vols’ offense was already a question with Iamaleava at quarterback due to a lackluster passing attack a season ago and Tennessee’s inability to improve the receiver room this offseason.
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Tennessee’s defense projecting as one of the sports’ 10 best is not s surprise after returning an abundance of talent from last season’s strong unit. The Vols’ defensive line has been consistently one of the conference’s best under Rodney Garner while Tennessee also returns a young linebacker core and boasting one of the best cornerback rooms in the SEC.
However, the Vols have ran the football well every year under Josh Heupel and that will remain true in 2025 despite the departure of SEC Offensive Player of the Year Dylan Sampson to the NFL.
Tennessee is the fourth highest rated SEC team in the rankings coming in behind No. 1 Texas, No. 2 Georgia and No. 4 Alabama. The Vols also come in directly ahead of a number of SEC foes including No. 11 Texas A&M, No. 12 LSU, No. 13 Ole Miss and No. 14 Auburn.
There are 11 SEC teams ranked in the top 20 of ESPN’s FPI and Tennessee has matchups against four of them— Georgia, Alabama, Oklahoma and Florida. The Vols’ premier non conference opponent, Syracuse, is not ranked in the top 20.
