In the SEC and non-conference play, Tennessee football has many historical rivals they don’t face yearly anymore. Here are 10 notable Volunteers foes.
What makes a great rivalry? Is it pure hatred, is it regional based, or does it develop because the teams are fighting for the same goals? In the case of Tennessee football, all three factors come into play for different rivalries.
UT obviously technically has an in-state rivalry with the Vanderbilt Commodores, even if they own that program. The Vols also have a pure hatred for the Alabama Crimson Tide and Florida Gators, and both developed in a period where the schools were fighting for the same conference or division crown. Now the Georgia Bulldogs are part of that.
Then there are rivalries that simply develop for the number of times teams play each other, which is where Tennessee football and the Kentucky Wildcats come into the mix. All of these games could be considered rivalries even if they are one-sided.
But what about other rivalries in Rocky Top’s history? After all, there are other regional teams and elite programs the Vols played on a yearly basis to make a rivalry. Well, in this post, we’re going to look back on some of those memorable rivalries that are now defunct.
To be a rival, UT has to have played a team at least five years in a row at some point. For instance, despite the Vols having a long history of facing the Memphis Tigers, the two schools have never faced each other more than three years in a row.
We won’t take into account how competitive the series was at the height of the rivalry, but that will serve as one of the tiebreakers among multiple schools. Another tiebreaker will be regional and conference connections that help fester that hatred.
When all of this is broken down, it will become clear that some of these opponents stood out more than others, and in many cases, UT would do well to bring some of these games back. Let’s go ahead and break down what we’re talking about. These are Tennessee football’s 10 biggest now defunct rivalries in school history.