Tennessee football kickoff time, TV set for Vanderbilt game

The Tennessee football Volunteers visit Vandy in Nashville next week.

In a battle that will decide who belongs in last place in the SEC, there was clearly not going to be much national interest when Tennessee football visited the Vanderbilt Commodores next week. Scheduling now shows that.

According to a Sunday afternoon announcement from the SEC, the Vols will face their in-state rival at 4 p.m. ET on the SEC Network. This will be the fifth game Rocky Top plays on SEC Network for the 2020 season.

On Saturday, Tennessee football lost 31-19 to the Florida Gators on CBS. While the game was at 3:30 p.m. ET, it was not the CBS primetime announcement crew, as they called the Alabama Crimson Tide and LSU Tigers game that night.

For the year, the Vols have played three games on CBS and one on ESPN in addition to their SEC Network games. Saturday at Vanderbilt will mark the first time they play in the afternoon slot on the network, though.

UT faced the South Carolina Gamecocks and Arkansas Razorbacks in the night slot on SEC Network. They faced the Missouri Tigers and Kentucky Wildcats in the noon slot. Against the Auburn Tigers, they played in the night slot on ESPN. All of their CBS games have been in the 3:30 p.m. slot, although as we said, the Florida one wasn’t the CBS Game of the Week.

With Vanderbilt having already fired Derek Mason, fans turning on Jeremy Pruitt on Rocky Top and neither team having a shot at a winning record this year, this is a rivalry of dumpster fires right now. It’s hard to know who actually has the edge, although Vandy is a bit more excited for the future given the fact that it is searching for a new head coach.

Given how bad Vandy is, though, Tennessee football should still win this game. It’s the only somewhat likely win left on their schedule, as they face the No. 5 ranked Texas A&M Aggies after that to end the season.