We’re exactly 50 days away from the Tennessee Football season opener against Syracuse in the 2025 Aflac Kickoff Game from Mercedes-Benz Stadium in Atlanta, GA.
That means that since Tennessee’s final game of the 2024 season last December, we’ve covered more than 80% of the offseason. SEC Media Days is next week in Atlanta, training camp is right around the corner in August, and people are excited to get back into Neyland Stadium this fall.
With the SEC’s expansion to 16 teams last season, we jumped into a new format of the conference schedule. Tennessee played eight SEC teams last year, which will be the same eight conference teams they play in 2025, just with flipped locations. For instance, Tennessee traveled to play Oklahoma and Arkansas last season, but will host both teams later this year.
Tennessee’s non-conference foes include Syracuse, ETSU, UAB, and New Mexico State.
In ESPN’s post-spring Way-Too-Early rankings, Tennessee was left off the list. Mark Schlabach’s rankings did come fairly quickly after Joey Aguilar’s commitment to Tennessee, but there weren’t many reports around the Vols’ quarterback just yet.
ESPN’s Football Power Index has a different story, though. The rankings, which are “a measure of team strength” based on 20,000 predictions, have Tennessee at No. 10 on its list.
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While these offseason rankings will ultimately become worthless when the season kicks off in just over a month, here’s a look at Tennessee’s upcoming schedule and where all 12 of the Vols’ opponents rank according to ESPN’s Way-Too-Early and FPI rankings:
Week 1 – Tennessee vs Syracuse – Aug. 30
- Way-Too-Early: N/R
- ESPN FPI: No. 62
Week 2 – ETSU at Tennessee – Sep. 6
- Way-Too-Early: N/R
- ESPN FPI: N/R
Week 3 – Georgia at Tennessee – Sep. 13
- Way-Too-Early: No. 4
- ESPN FPI: No. 2
Week 4 – UAB at Tennessee – Sep. 20
- Way-Too-Early: N/R
- ESPN FPI: No. 115
Week 5 – Tennessee at Mississippi State – Sep. 27
- Way-Too-Early: N/R
- ESPN FPI: No. 52
Week 6 – OFF – Oct. 4
Week 7 – Arkansas at Tennessee – Oct. 11
- Way-Too-Early: N/R
- ESPN FPI: No. 22
Week 8 – Tennessee at Alabama – Oct. 18
- Way-Too-Early: No. 9
- ESPN FPI: No. 2
Week 9 – Tennessee at Kentucky – Oct. 25
- Way-Too-Early: N/R
- ESPN FPI: No. 34
Week 10 – Oklahoma at Tennessee – Nov. 1
- Way-Too-Early: No. 25
- ESPN FPI: No. 16
Week 11 – OFF – Nov. 8
Week 12 – New Mexico State at Tennessee – Nov. 15
- Way-Too-Early: N/R
- ESPN FPI: No. 134
Week 13 – Tennessee at Florida – Nov. 22
- Way-Too-Early: No. 19
- ESPN FPI: No. 18
Week 14 – Vanderbilt at Tennessee – Nov. 29
- Way-Too-Early: N/R
- ESPN FPI: No. 56
