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Who should Tennessee football's three annual rivals be in SEC's nine-game schedule?
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- Who should Tennessee football's three annual rivals be in SEC's nine-game schedule?
The SEC is making the move to a nine-game conference schedule for football in 2026, the conference announced Aug. 21 .
The new scheduling format will include three annual opponents, which means Tennessee football will maintain key rivalries each season. The SEC also announced it will continue with a single-standings, non-divisional structure and the other six games will rotate among the remaining schools.
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Here is who the Vols should face under the new conference scheduling structure:
Alabama
The Tennessee-Alabama rivalry is a surefire protected matchup in the new scheduling format. "The Third Saturday in October" is one of the best and most historic rivalries in the conference with cigars to the victors and bitterness for the losers.
The rivalry has often featured long runs of wins, including Tennessee's dominance in the 1990s and Alabama's 15-game winning streak from 2007-21. Tennessee has won two of the past three and fans tore down the goalposts at Neyland Stadium following both . The 2022 matchup ending with a game-winning field goal for the Vols led to an especially epic celebration.
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Tennessee has a 40-60-7 record against Alabama.
Vanderbilt
The Tennessee-Vanderbilt series has rarely been competitive outside of a stretch in the 2010s in which the Vols lost five of seven. The matchup has mostly been marked by Tennessee's dominance, including a 22-game winning streak from 1983 through 2004. The Vols are currently on a seven-game winning streak against the in-state foe, including all four matchups under Heupel.
The rivalry likely would be protected for the proximity and the fact Vanderbilt doesn't have many other clear-cut rivals.
Tennessee has an 81-32-5 record all-time against the Commodores . Eighteen of UT's losses were before 1927. It has a 73-14-1 record with both schools as SEC members.
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Florida
The third rivalry could veer in one of three directions for Tennessee.
Florida is the best matchup given the historic matchups in the 1990s between Steve Spurrier and Phillip Fulmer. It hits the qualification the SEC outlined in focusing on "maintaining many traditional rivalries" with the Vols and Gators having played every season since 1990 with 54 matchups overall.
Kentucky makes sense regionally and because the rivalry extends across multiple sports. South Carolina is a possibility again because of proximity. Tennessee has played Kentucky 120 times, the most of any of these three options. It has won 85 of those games and has only lost three time since 1985 in an imbalanced series. It has played South Carolina 42 times, including a run of 32 straight seasons until the Vols and Gamecocks did not play in 2024.
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USC or UK would lead to a balanced three-game lineup of an elite matchup (Alabama), a solid matchup (South Carolina/Kentucky) and a lesser matchup (Vanderbilt) if the SEC follows that line of thinking.
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Florida could be the pick because it's the most exciting possibility. But given the SEC will have Georgia on Florida's rotation, Tennessee might not be paired with the Gators. If Florida is not the choice, the Vols would face the Gators at least once every two years.
Mike Wilson covers University of Tennessee athletics. Email him at michael.wilson@knoxnews.com and follow him on X @ ByMikeWilson . If you enjoy Mike's coverage, consider a digital subscription that will allow you access to all of it.
This article originally appeared on Knoxville News Sentinel: Tennessee football schedule: Annual rivalries in nine-game SEC slate
