Despite clocking in as the No. 18 team in the preseason Coaches Top 25 poll and No. 19 in an AP Voters’ ballot, a major publication did not put Tennessee football inside its rankings.
In Yahoo Sports‘ Top 25 rankings ahead of the 2025 college football season, the Vols were listed as the second team in the ‘Also Considered’ category behind Baylor.
The top 10 hasn’t been revealed yet, but spots 11-25 and the teams just sitting on the outside, like Tennessee, were announced on Aug. 1. SEC teams to make the cut so far are No. 24 Florida, No. 22 South Carolina, No. 21 Texas A&M, No. 19 Ole Miss and No. 12 Oklahoma.
It is also reasonable to expect Georgia, Texas, LSU and Alabama to be placed in the top 10. This would make the Vols the 10th-ranked team in the conference.
Of these already ranked and projected to be ranked teams, Tennessee will meet Florida, Oklahoma, Georgia and Alabama on the field this year. Other SEC opponents in Arkansas, Mississippi State, Vanderbilt and Kentucky, along with ACC foe Syracuse, were not ranked. None of these teams were in the ‘Also Considered’ category, either.
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This comes after a turbulent offseason for Tennessee. After the spring window, the Vols lost returning starting quarterback Nico Iamaleava in a messy divorce, leading to the signal caller transferring to UCLA. In response, Tennessee picked up UCLA quarterback and App State transfer Joey Aguilar.
Now, the Vols are in the midst of a quarterback battle between Aguilar, redshirt freshman Jake Merklinger and true freshman George MacIntyre. Tennessee has a little less than a month to iron out its quarterback situation before the season opener. The Vols will head to Atlanta for a neutral-site clash with Syracuse on Aug. 30 at noon ET. That game will air on ABC.
Tennessee’s home-opener will be held the following Saturday on Sept. 6. The Vols will welcome in-state FCS program ETSU to town for a game scheduled for 3:30 p.m. ET on SEC Network+ and ESPN+. The following week, Tennessee will begin its SEC slate by hosting No. 4 Georgia at 3:30 p.m. ET on ABC.
