Ahead of the 2025 college football season, ESPN has placed all 136 FBS teams into 20 different tiers.
Tennessee football was placed into tier No. 3, dubbed ‘someone in the SEC has to lose games, too.’ The Vols join conference foes Florida, Oklahoma, South Carolina and Texas A&M in this category.
ESPN’s David Hale did note how thin the margin is between this tier, reaching the playoffs and the bottom falling out, though.
“Now, others might parse the data differently, but the bottom line is inarguable,” Hale wrote in the article. “No one in the SEC has an easy ride to the playoff, which makes Tier 3 likely to include at least two playoff teams and at least two schools that fire their coaches, and the difference between those camps will be a few plays one way or the other.
“The SEC is designed to eat itself, which is one of the reasons it has pushed so hard for increased playoff access. There’s simply not a scenario in which every school that invests in winning, has a playoff-caliber roster and features fans who expect to make a playoff run will actually do so.”
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Just ahead of UT is the Tier 2 titled ‘playoff expectations.’ This includes Alabama, Clemson, Miami, Michigan, Notre Dame and LSU.
Tier 1 is split into two categories. 1B is the ‘rest of the best’ group, which features Georgia, Oregon and Penn State. 1A is ‘great matchup for Week 1 and/or the championship game’ with only Ohio State and Texas listed. The Buckeyes and Longhorns will meet on Aug. 30 to open the season.
Tennessee sits just ahead of Tier 4, which was dubbed ‘last year’s playoff surprises.’ This included Arizona State, Boise State, Indiana and SMU.
The Vols’ 11 FBS opponents are New Mexico State (Tier 20), UAB (Tier 18), Mississippi State (Tier 16A), Kentucky (Tier 12), Arkansas (Tier 12), Syracuse (Tier 8) and Vanderbilt (Tier 8), Oklahoma (Tier 4), Florida (Tier 4), Alabama (Tier 2) and Georgia (Tier 1B).
