After Tennessee’s win at Georgia on Wednesday night, the Volunteers remain as a 6-seed projection in Joe Lunardi’s latest bracketology report for ESPN on Friday morning. Tennessee elevated from a 7-seed to a 6-seed coming off of last weekend’s win at Alabama and stayed put on the line following the win at Georgia.
The Vols will continue SEC play with a home game against Auburn on Saturday night in the Food City Center.
The only difference between Tuesday’s and Friday’s bracketology updates is the region in which Tennessee is the 6-seed in. Tennessee moved from the East Region to the Midwest Region to close down the work week. Lunardi’s projection has Tennessee taking on 11-seed Miami OH in the first round, with a potential second round matchup against either 3-seed Purdue or 14-seed ETSU.
Other notable entries in Lunardi’s projected region include 1-seed Michigan, 2-seed Iowa State, 4-seed Vanderbilt, and 5-seed Virginia. SEC foe Texas A&M also lands in the projected region as the 8-seed.
Tennessee has been a 6-seed projection in five of Lunardi’s last six updates. The only time that the Vols dropped below that mark was for one update following the Vols’ blown-lead loss to Kentucky. Tennessee has rattled off back-to-back road wins since then, though, and could possibly rise up with a win over Auburn on Saturday in Knoxville.
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Tennessee is 14-6 on the season with a 4-3 record in conference play. The Vols showed some important growth over the last week with two wins on the road. Prior to the Alabama game, Tennessee was 0-3 in true road games with losses at Syracuse, Arkansas, and Florida. Picking up the road wins over the Crimson Tide and the Bulldogs last week should give the Vols some needed confidence and momentum heading into the next SEC stretch.
The Vols will close out January with a home game against Auburn. Tennessee’s February games include matchups against Ole Miss, at Kentucky, at Mississippi State, against LSU, against Oklahoma, at Vanderbilt, at Missouri, and against Alabama. The Vols will close out the regular season with March games at South Carolina and home against Vanderbilt.
Tennessee (14-6, 4-3 SEC) will host Auburn (14-7, 5-3 SEC) on Saturday night at 8:30 p.m. ET in the Food City Center. Stay tuned to Rocky Top Insider for live coverage of the event in Knoxville.
