National media makes a statement about how they view the Vols in 2026 compared to last year with preseason AP Poll ranking
The Vols found themselves up a bit in the media’s rankings compared to 2025.
The Tennessee Vols begin their season like everyone else — hoping to find their way into the 12 teams in the final College Football Playoff rankings. Since we don’t get those rankings until starting in November, we have the AP and Coaches Polls to go off of.
The Coaches Poll came out earlier this month, with the Vols ranked No. 18 there. Now we know where they will start their season in the media poll, which came out on Monday afternoon. Tennessee checked in at No. 20.
Tennessee ranked No. 20 in preseason AP Top 25 Poll
Tennessee’s ranking of 20 feels about right, particularly given that the coaches also had them close at No. 18.
However, looking at where Tennessee started last year and where they are now, it feels like an interesting spot from the media. Last year, Tennessee started off at No. 18 in the Coaches Poll but just No. 24 in the AP Poll. That’s quite the difference, and it was an eyebrow-raising starting point, even after the loss of starting QB Nico Iamaleava in the offseason.
Now, with the prolific Joey Aguilar gone, Tennessee is turning to an inexperienced freshman — either George MacIntyre or Faizon Brandon — to run Tennessee’s offense. The Vols are also going to be implementing a new defense under Jim Knowles, and they’ll be doing it without an apparent edge rushing threat following the departure of Chaz Coleman this offseason.
Yet, Tennessee still managed to find themselves among the top 20 teams in the nation among the media. That feels like a bit of the benefit of the doubt from the media that CBS Sports’ Chip Patterson talked about recently with Tennessee, given their 38-14 record since 2022 with a different starting QB each year.
We’ll find out whether that relatively improved faith by the media is warranted soon enough, with Tennessee going to Georgia Tech for a potentially season-swinging game one week after opening up against Furman on Sept. 5.
