Tennessee's 2024 SEC football opponents revealed
Rest easy, Third Saturday in October faithful. The Alabama-Tennessee game will take place in 2024. The SEC revealed the 2024 SEC opponents and matchups, and the Alabama-Tennessee game was the very first matchup that the network revealed. As Alabama-Tennessee has taken place in Knoxville on even years, the game will basically continue as normal, with […]
Rest easy, Third Saturday in October faithful.
The Alabama-Tennessee game will take place in 2024. The SEC revealed the 2024 SEC opponents and matchups, and the Alabama-Tennessee game was the very first matchup that the network revealed. As Alabama-Tennessee has taken place in Knoxville on even years, the game will basically continue as normal, with the Vols going to Alabama in 2023.
It wasn't the only rivalry involving UT that was preserved. Far from it, in fact. Tennessee will host Florida, Kentucky, and Alabama while traveling to Georgia and Vanderbilt. The carryover is largely there from what would be a typical Tennessee season, although it would have been understandable (and very fair) to have given Tennessee a reprieve from playing both Alabama and Georgia for a year, as only UT and Auburn have been playing both every year since the inception of the SEC divisional format in 1992. Tennessee's other home opponent is Mississippi State.
The SEC appeared to make a point with traditional rivalries beyond just Tennessee being of paramount importance to the league. Auburn will continue its matchups with both Alabama and Georgia. Texas and Texas A&M will renew their feud. OU-Texas is staying in Dallas. The Golden Boot will stay up for grabs between LSU and Arkansas. The one game that appears to have fallen off (at least for 2024) is LSU-Auburn.
Tennessee's other road opponents are Oklahoma and Arkansas. Tennessee's record against Oklahoma all time is 1-3, with the teams last meeting in the 2014 and 2015 seasons. The Sooners throttled UT 34-10 in Norman and won a thriller in Knoxville 31-24 in double overtime the following year. The Vols haven't won on the road versus the Hogs since grinding out a 13-3 win early in the 2001 season.
The specific dates are expected to be announced later in the year, but for now, UT fans can rest easy knowing their traditional rivalries are alive and well for at least two more years – and some likely well beyond.
Featured image via Caitie McMekin/News Sentinel / USA TODAY NETWORK
