Tennessee, like all 16 teams in the SEC, will have its hands full with a new nine-game conference schedule this football season. The conference announced back in August that each SEC team will play nine conference games in 2026, and one of its non-conference games must be against an opponent from the ACC, the Big Ten, the Big 12, or Notre Dame.
The new nine-game schedule means that teams will alternate having a home-leaning schedule every other year. Tennessee, for instance, will have five SEC home games in 2026 and five SEC road games in 2027.
Tennessee will begin the year with a home game against Furman before taking on its Power 4 non-conference opponent, which will be at Georgia Tech in Week 2. The Vols then cap off their non-conference schedule with a home game against Kennesaw State before opening up SEC play at home against Texas. Tennessee will have four games in October, with a home game against Auburn, a road game at Arkansas, a home game against Alabama, and a road game at South Carolina. The Vols will then have their bye week on Halloween, Oct. 31.
Tennessee will wrap up its season with a home game against Kentucky, a road game at Texas A&M, a home game against LSU, and a road game at Vanderbilt.
A post from Reddit CFB organized the schedules of all 138 FBS teams based on opponents’ success in 2025. Tennessee has the 20th-ranked schedule in the nation based on 2025 records, which is the 11th highest in the SEC. Texas and Kentucky have the two most difficult schedules in the country, according to the rankings.
Now, obviously, this is an imperfect set of rankings. Teams across the country will be getting better and worse next season. For instance, Tennessee’s ranking is likely dragged down a bit by LSU’s 7-6 record in 2025, and it’s not hard to project that the Tigers will be better with Lane Kiffin’s top-ranked portal class in 2026. Same with Auburn.
Still, though, it gives an interesting projection of just how difficult each team’s path will be.
With the 2026 FBS schedules finalized, here’s a graph of all 138 FBS teams ranked by average strength of schedule (based on 2025 opponent ranks). pic.twitter.com/5v3S6gTlak
— RedditCFB (@RedditCFB) April 30, 2026
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One interesting note about Tennessee’s schedule, especially when using comparisons to last year’s records, is that four of UT’s nine SEC games will be against a new head coach. Auburn, Arkansas, Kentucky, and LSU all have a different man at the helm than they did last season.
Tennessee’s strength of schedule sits behind Texas, Kentucky, Oklahoma, Mississippi State, Arkansas, Alabama, Florida, LSU, Georgia, and Vanderbilt in the SEC. The lowest SEC team on the list is Auburn, which comes in 12 national spots behind the Volunteers.
One other random note is that Tennessee is the highest-rated team that Kennesaw State will play, which is the only team that has the Volunteers at the top of its list. Kennesaw State is coached by former Tennessee running backs coach Jerry Mack.
Here’s a look at the Vols’ full 2026 football schedule:
- Sept. 5 – vs Furman
- Sept. 12 – at Georgia Tech
- Sept. 19 – vs Kennesaw State
- Sept. 26 – vs Texas
- Oct. 3 – vs Auburn
- Oct. 10 – at Arkansas
- Oct. 17 – vs Alabama
- Oct. 24 – at South Carolina
- Oct. 31 – OPEN
- Nov. 7 – vs Kentucky
- Nov. 14 – at Texas A&M
- Nov. 21 – vs LSU
- Nov. 28 – at Vanderbilt
