There is a chance Tennessee football finishes the season ranked in the top 25. Here is a rooting guide for Volunteers fans in this year’s bowl game.
With the Army-Navy game in the books, the only games left to play are bowl games in the 2019 college football season. Tennessee football is in one for the first time in three years, and if things break a certain way for them, they actually have an outside shot at finishing in the top 25 rankings of at least one poll.
This was actually the case the last two times the Vols went bowling. They were outside of the top 25 both times but finished ranked in the final AP and Coaches Polls after winning their bowl game. However, it was a bit different both times as well. After all, they entered those bowl games 8-4 each year, not 7-5, and they faced a ranked team both times.
In the Gator Bowl this year, Tennessee football will face the 8-4 and unranked Indiana Hoosiers. But that does not mean the Vols don’t have a chance to squeak into the final rankings with a victory to finish the season 8-5.
As we get set to bring Vol fans a rooting guide for bowl games this year, that will be the major focus. There are other things related to pride for the program and things that will have an impact long-term, and all of those go into play when it comes to a rooting guide.
Taking all of that into account, there are 25 bowl games that will affect the Vols in some way. In this post, we’re going to rank them from No. 25 to No. 1 in terms of which ones have the biggest impacts on Rocky Top, and we’ll detail who UT fans should root for in each outing. We’ll have the rankings in the AP and Coaches Poll by each team in the slideshow.
By the way, these games do not include Tennessee’s matchup with Indiana. It’s a given that the Vols need to win that one. That would be No. 1 on the list. These are the games the Vols are not playing in that could have an impact. Also, any lines we discuss are based on the spreads provided by Action Sports Network.
Currently, UT is nine spots outside of the Coaches top 25, and they are receiving no votes in the AP Poll. However, there’s a path for them to finish ranked in both of them. And there are other things that could benefit them along the way. Let’s break all of that down here. This is our rooting guide for Tennessee football fans in the 2019-2020 bowl games.