The Tennessee football team hasn’t won an SEC Championship since 1998, but the Championship Game still runs through Knoxville.
When you think about SEC greatness, the Tennessee football team doesn’t come to mind, at least not recently. In all honesty, they have been the laughing stock of the conference. Yet despite only winning two SEC games the past two seasons, the SEC Championship still runs through Knoxville, Tennessee.
Okay, I’ll have to admit that sounds quite silly saying it out loud. And, you probably think I’m crazy. But, hear me out for a second since 1992 Tennessee has played the SEC Champion all but two seasons in those 26 years.
Of course, that excludes the 1997 and 1998 seasons when the Vols took home the championship. No one was beating Tennessee in 1998; they were clearly the best team in college football. The Vols weren’t lucky to beat Arkansas; the Razorbacks were lucky even to have a chance to win.
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In the mid-1990s, Florida had a stranglehold on the conference. Even though the Gators owned the rivalry against the Vols, the winner of the game usually made a trip to Atlanta. In fact, from 1992-2001, only Florida and Tennessee represented the Eastern division.
The Gators won the Championship four years in a row (1993,1994,1995, 1996) and beat Alabama three of those years, another team the Vols play every season.
The question could be asked if the numbers are inflated because Tennessee plays Alabama every season. Nick Saban has the Tide rolling, and they have been dominant. So dominant they have represented the Western division seven of the past ten games.
And, sure Alabama has been a step above everyone else, but Tennessee plays the Tide every year. Even in the random years Auburn and LSU found a way to win the West division, Tennessee played them.
The only exceptions were in 2010 when Auburn won and 2003 when Nick Saban’s LSU team was virtually unstoppable.
It doesn’t appear anything will be different in the near future. The Vols still have to play Alabama and Georgia every season. The Tide will be great as long as Saban is in charge. Georgia will be good thanks to location. The only thing holding them back is Kirby Smart. If he could ever learn to coach in big games, the Bulldogs might have a chance to win it all.
And, then there is Dan Mullen. He has the chance to win ten games in his first season at Florida and odds are he will keep them at a highly competitive level for years to come.
Jeremy Pruitt may have the Vols on the rise and competing for championships sooner rather than later. Tennessee’s 2019 recruiting class is ranked in the top-15, and it’s early, but they are making splashes in the 2020 class.
However, it doesn’t matter if Tennessee is good or not. For the foreseeable future, the SEC Championship will run through Knoxville. And, based on history, it always will.