Don’t get it twisted Tennessee football fans. The historical nature is just a pretext for the Vols’ three permanent SEC rivals, at least for the next four years. In truth, the league is trying to make up for what UT has had to deal with during the Nick Saban era with the Alabama Crimson Tide.
With the league moving to a nine-game schedule in 2025, every team will have three annual rivals, to be evaluated every four years, and play the other six on a rotating basis. The SEC announced the three rivals for every school Monday, and the Vols drew Alabama, the Vanderbilt Commodores and Kentucky Wildcats.
Of course, Tennessee football has developed more recent rivalries with the Florida Gators and Georgia Bulldogs, both of greater magnitude, but all three of their permanent rivals are among the 11 most played SEC games in history and among the nine most played if you just look at charter members.
Regardless of what the SEC says, though, this wasn’t about history. It was about reparations. During its decade of dysfunction, Tennessee is one of just two SEC schools, the other being the Auburn Tigers, that had to face Alabama and Georgia every single year during the Nick Saban and Kirby Smart eras respectively. Now, the SEC is making it up to them.
If it were just about history, the league would’ve protected the LSU Tigers’ historic rivalry with the Mississippi State Bulldogs, another one of the most played games in league history. Also, Vanderbilt and Kentucky facing each other is one of the most played games in league history, as is Vandy and the Ole Miss Rebels. All of those are gone.
Simply put, this was abouit doing Tennessee football a solid. Now, Auburn didn’t get the solid, as they still have to face Georgia and Alabama, but there’s too much history behind both games to ignore, Kalen DeBoer at Bama won’t be as dangerous as Saban was, and Auburn didn’t deal with what the Vols did with.
Remember, before Smart or Saban, the Vols had to face Florida every year with Urban Meyer. Only Tennessee had to face the three head coaches in the SEC to win multiple national titles every single year they were in the league dating back to 2005. It just so happened UT fell off as a program during that time.
Anecdotally, the Vols drew the three best teams in the SEC West in 2011, the last year the league was 12 teams, and all three of those foes finished in the top five at the end of the year. It is hard enough to build a program in the SEC that has hit rock bottom, but having to do it while facing two programs at their peak annually makes it even harder.
As a result, this draw by Tennessee football is well-earned. The Vols have a long history of playing programs at their peak under head coaches, including Bama under Saban and Bear Bryant, Florida under Meyer and Steve Spurrier, Georgia under Smart, Auburn under Pat Dye and Shug Jordan and Ole Miss under Johnny Vaught. It’s time they got a break.
