The football schedule for 2025 has been released by the Southeastern Conference, and for Tennessee football, not much has changed. Owing to the SEC’s inability to reach a consensus on a conference structure, the league will play without divisions in 2024 and 2025.
There are some recognizable faces on the Vols’ 2024 schedule, even though it will differ from what Tennessee fans are used to. Tennessee will still play each year against Vanderbilt, Florida, Georgia, Alabama, and Kentucky.
Through 2025, Tennessee and the other SEC teams will play an eight-game league schedule in addition to at least one Power Five non-conference opponent; however, since conference realignment is currently happening around the nation, this could alter in the future.
Home opponents: Vanderbilt; Georgia; Oklahoma; Arkansas; Georgia
Opponents away from home: Mississippi State, Florida, Kentucky, and Alabama
For the next two years, Tennessee’s schedule will essentially consist of home games against the same opponents every two years. Below are the 2025 SEC schedule’s opponents for Tennessee along with their respective locations.
This is an unusual move on the part of the SEC, as the conference may just be a means of buying time until the member schools get together this summer and agree on a long-term solution to future scheduling.
Conference realignment was given by SEC Commissioner Greg Sankey as the primary justification for maintaining the current schedule for the next season: “We continue to monitor changes across college sports as they relate to future scheduling.” Maintaining the current structure until the 2025 season will provide us more time to assess the effects of the external changes and decide on the best long-term strategy for SEC football scheduling.”
This, however, contradicts the SEC’s original justification for this timetable structure. Every school in the conference will play every other institution at least once every four years, which is the main goal of the current scheduling arrangement. With the revised timeline for 2025, this appears to no longer be the case.
With its new league structure, Tennessee and the rest of the SEC will have an exciting year. Rather than competing for the division title in Atlanta, the top two teams in the conference will play for the SEC Championship. In an attempt to make their first trip to Atlanta since 2007, the Vols now know who they will play against over the next two seasons.
