With the regular season coming to a conclusion last weekend, Tennessee Football will head into the bowl season with an 8-4 overall record. The Vols took care of business against teams like Florida, Mississippi State, Arkansas, and Kentucky, but fell in all four of their ranked matchups to Alabama, Georgia, Vanderbilt, and Oklahoma. Tennessee went 4-0 in the non-conference slate and 4-4 in SEC play.
Tennessee’s eight-win season obviously has the Vols in a position to play in a bowl game later this month. Potentially next month, if you want to get technical about the Jan. 2 bowl game slate. Either way, though, the Vols are in. The question now is where the Vols will end up.
We’ve been tracking the top bowl projections through the entire season to this point. Predictions have been all over the place, but there’s been much more consistency as things have continued on. We’re at a point now where out of the top four predictions, three of them have Tennessee going to the same location with the same opponent.
On3 Sports’ Brett McMurphy, USA Today’s Erick Smith, and ESPN’s Kyle Bonagura all have Tennessee going to the TaxSlayer Gator Bowl on Dec. 27 in Jacksonville, FL. All three experts have Tennessee taking on the Georgia Tech Yellow Jackets in the SEC vs ACC game at EverBank Stadium, home of the Jacksonville Jaguars.
That game will take place at 7:30 p.m. ET on ABC. Last season’s Gator Bowl saw No. 16 Ole Miss pummel Duke by a score of 52-20.
Tennessee has played in the Gator Bowl twice since 2015. The Vols defeated Iowa, 45-28, in the 2015 Gator Bowl and then beat Indiana, 23-22, in the 2020 Gator Bowl. The latter game was vacated by the NCAA, though.
Georgia Tech, a team that was once thought to be in competition for the ACC crown, finished the season at 9-3 after losing to Georgia during rivalry weekend last Saturday. The Yellow Jackets got off to a blistering 8-0 start to the season, but dropped three of its final four games to NC State, Pitt, and Georgia in the month of November.
The other interesting thing about a potential GT matchup is that Tennessee and Georgia Tech will square off in the second game of the 2026 regular season on Saturday, Sept. 12, in Bobby Dodd Stadium. If the Vols and Yellow Jackets meet up in a bowl, they’ll technically be set to play each other twice in a three-game stretch.
More From RTI: Top-Ranked, Five-Star Wide Receiver Tristen Keys Officially Signs with Tennessee Football
The other prediction is from ESPN’s Mark Schlabach, who has Tennessee in the ReliaQuest Bowl on Dec. 31 from Tampa, FL. Schlabach has the Volunteers playing Iowa in the game from Raymond James Stadium, home of the Tampa Bay Buccaneers.
Last season’s ReliaQuest Bowl game saw Michigan defeat Alabama by a score of 19-13 on New Year’s Eve.
With a win over Nebraska during rivalry weekend, Iowa also finished the season at 8-4 with four ranked losses. The Hawkeyes fell to Iowa State, Indiana, Oregon, and Southern Cal, but all four losses only came by a combined 16 points. Iowa did not lose a game this season by more than five points, even against two teams that are almost certainly playoff-bound with the Hoosiers and the Ducks.
So, there you have it. Based on the four expert predictions this week, it looks like it’ll either be the Gator Bowl on Dec. 27 or the ReliaQuest Bowl on Dec. 31 for Tennessee’s postseason bowl game.
We’ll find out where Tennessee’s bowl game will be this coming Sunday, following all the action from conference championship weekend on Saturday. Stay tuned to Rocky Top Insider for more bowl projection news this Sunday.
