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Tennessee football needs a plan with Texas, OU to SEC now official

By Caleb Calhoun

KNOXVILLE, TN - OCTOBER 11: Detailed view of the "SEC" logo on an end zone pylon during a game between the Tennessee Volunteers and the Chattanooga Mocs at Neyland Stadium on October 11, 2014 in Knoxville, Tennessee. Tennessee won the game 45-10. (Photo by Stacy Revere/Getty Images)
KNOXVILLE, TN - OCTOBER 11: Detailed view of the "SEC" logo on an end zone pylon during a game between the Tennessee Volunteers and the Chattanooga Mocs at Neyland Stadium on October 11, 2014 in Knoxville, Tennessee. Tennessee won the game 45-10. (Photo by Stacy Revere/Getty Images) /
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It’s official. The SEC announced a unanimous vote Thursday evening to add the Texas Longhorns and Oklahoma Sooners effective July 1, 2025. Yes, even the Texas A&M Aggies and Missouri Tigers agreed, and despite our objections on this site, Tennessee football joined in.

No matter how much I think this was a mistake, it’s irrelevant. What’s important for the Vols now is that they have a plan moving forward to make sure they don’t fall behind in the pecking order. They just went from the second winningest program in SEC history to the fourth.

When it comes to other sports, things will be fine. UT is about to have a ton of extra revenue to keep men’s basketball, baseball, women’s basketball, softball and everything else at an elite level for a long time. However, they can’t let that be at the sacrifice of Tennessee football.

If Danny White and Donde Plowman have a plan to make sure the Vols are ahead of the curve, this can work out and be a win-win in every way. How they stay ahead of the curve is a different question, but there are paths they can take.

Maybe the Vols need to get ahead of everybody else and take advantage of the murkiness in NCAA compensation rules now due to the recent Supreme Court decision by paying their players now, even beyond NIL payments. That’s a way to jump out ahead of things.

White seems to grasp the idea that the Vols need to move beyond just the traditions that made them great. It’s not that they can’t hold onto those, but they certainly need to insert some new flare into the program to maintain national interest in it for recruiting purposes.

However, increased SEC revenue alone isn’t going to help Tennessee football when it helps every other SEC team. In fact, it levels the playing field even more given the fact that the Vols individually generate more revenue than almost every other school.

While paying players is the boldest way to get out ahead of the curve and inserting new traditions is the safest way, there is a healthy middle ground. White and Josh Heupel have to figure out what that is. Heupel’s fun brand of offense alone isn’t going to cut it when you now have so many offensive minds coaching in the league anyway.

Simply put, the league just got insanely tougher for every team that voted to add Texas and Oklahoma, including the Alabama Crimson Tide. Sure, Texas has struggled in recent years, but their brand dilutes recruiting advantages for everybody else, and Oklahoma has been a powerhouse on a consistent basis dating back to 2000.

Next. Vols' top 10 now defunct rivalries in history. dark

Before thinking about anything to get ahead of the curve, though, the next step for Tennessee football is trying to steer the SEC towards setting up a realignment format that favors the Vols. White needs to play hardball on that one, as the last thing UT needs is to be caught having one of the more brutal annual slates every year.

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