New 9-game SEC schedule means the Tennessee Vols will go 15 years between trips to historic SEC venue
On Tuesday evening, the SEC revealed each program’s conference opponents for the next four seasons (2026-2029), and there’s a scheduling quirk involving the Tennessee Vols. Before the opponents were announced, there was speculation that Tennessee would play the Ole Miss Rebels in 2026. The two teams last played in Knoxville in 2021. The Vols, however, […]
On Tuesday evening, the SEC revealed each program’s conference opponents for the next four seasons (2026-2029), and there’s a scheduling quirk involving the Tennessee Vols.
Before the opponents were announced, there was speculation that Tennessee would play the Ole Miss Rebels in 2026. The two teams last played in Knoxville in 2021.
The Vols, however, won’t play Ole Miss until 2027 when the Rebels come to Knoxville.
Tennessee will then travel to Ole Miss in 2029 for a matchup against the Rebels.
Tennessee will go 15 years between trips to Ole Miss and The Grove
Tennessee hasn’t played at Ole Miss since the 2014 season, when Butch Jones and the Vols went to Oxford and lost 34-3 (amazingly, the Vols totaled zero rushing yards in that game).
With the Vols not set to return to Oxford until 2029, it means that Tennessee will go 15 years between trips to the Grove.
One of the benefits of the new SEC scheduling format is that Tennessee will visit each SEC venue at least once every four years. So moving forward, going this long between trips to Oxford (or any other SEC venue) won’t be an issue. But it’s still odd that Tennessee will go 15 years between trips to such an iconic spot in the SEC.
This isn’t the first time, though, that Tennessee has gone this long without a trip to Oxford. The Vols didn’t play at Ole Miss between 1988 and 2004 (the 1996 meeting was in Memphis, and in 1997, it was in Knoxville).
In total, the Vols have only visited the Grove three times since the 1998 season (2004, 2009, and 2014).
Fortunately, that won’t be the case anymore once the nine-game SEC schedule gets going.
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