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Tennessee football: Do Vols fare better with all home non-conference games?

By Caleb Calhoun

KNOXVILLE, TN - SEPTEMBER 15: A view of the outside of Neyland Stadium before a game between the Florida Gators and Tennessee Volunteers on September 15, 2012 in Knoxville, Tennessee. (Photo by John Sommers II/Getty Images)
KNOXVILLE, TN - SEPTEMBER 15: A view of the outside of Neyland Stadium before a game between the Florida Gators and Tennessee Volunteers on September 15, 2012 in Knoxville, Tennessee. (Photo by John Sommers II/Getty Images) /
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Photo by Scott Halleran /Allsport
Photo by Scott Halleran /Allsport /

Tier 2

One loss or two to three blemishes AND top 10 finish

In these seasons, the Vols can finish with one or two losses, but factoring in ties, they can have no more than three blemishes. And post AP Poll era, these teams must all be top 10 teams. 

SEC

1944: 7-1-1 (5-0-1)

1945: 8-1 (3-1)

1971: 10-2 (4-2)

1993: 10-2 (7-1)

1995: 11-1 (7-1)

Pre-SEC

1926: 8-1 (5-1 Southern)

1930: 9-1 (6-1 Southern)

As you can see, Tennessee football has had numerous SEC teams enjoy great years while playing all non-conference games at home. All of those teams had three to five non-conference games, and none of the ones on this list won the SEC. So they likely took advantage of that non-conference slate to get to 10 wins or in the top 10.

Meanwhile, the 1926 and 1930 Vols were the only teams Robert Neyland led while in the Southern Conference to even lose a game. And both lost games in the Southern Conference. It’s worth noting Neyland never lost a non-conference game anyway before joining the SEC.

Final count

SEC Era: 5 (17 overall)

Pre-SEC: 2 (3 overall)

Complete history: 7 (20 overall)

Percentages

SEC Era: 29 percent (20 percent overall)

Pre-SEC: 14 percent (9 percent overall)

Complete history: 23 percent percent (17 percent overall)

So, as you can see, when it comes to very good seasons, almost top tier seasons, the Vols are much more likely to have them when they have all non-conference games at home. What this shows is they really took advantage of those slates.

They may not have won championships here, but they did enough to have elite, memorable seasons. In many cases, teams in this category did win titles. However, none of these teams did, meaning, again, the non-conference slate may have put them in that category.

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