Tennessee football made a mistake by adding Washington home and home in 2029, 2030

Call it cowardice. I really don’t care. The program’s needs are the first priority. With the changes about to come to college football and the SEC in particular, Tennessee football is making a huge mistake when scheduling certain teams so far in advance.

UT has reached an agreement to face the Washington Huskies in a home-and-home. According to UTSports, they will host UW at Neyland Stadium on Sept. 1, 2029 but visit them on Sept. 7, 2030, at Husky Stadium in Seattle. Unless they meet in a bowl before them, this will be the first two matchups between the schools.

This follows scheduled matchups at the Pittsburgh Panthers in 2022, at the BYU Cougars in 2023, at home against the Oklahoma Sooners in 2024 and a home-and-home with the Nebraska Cornhuskers in 2026 and 2027. Tennessee football also has two neutral site games against the Syracuse Orange and West Virginia Mountaineers in 2025 and 2028 respectively.

All of those were forgivable, though, as they were largely agreed upon before the new changing landscape. That changing landscape refers specifically to the SEC, which is about to add two teams by 2025, one of whom is ironically Oklahoma. The other would be the Texas Longhorns.

Sorry, but with the league getting that much tougher, it makes no sense for the Vols, at this moment, to be scheduling Power Five teams like Washington so far out. We have no idea what the Vols’ division or pod in the SEC will look like by that point, depending on how the league formats the schedules.

What happens if the SEC expands to nine games and UT is in a pod with the Alabama Crimson Tide and Auburn Tigers or one with the Georgia Bulldogs and Florida Gators? Heck, what if the league expands to nine games but just moves Alabama and Auburn over to the East. Things could get extra brutal for the Vols.

Future unknowns about conference scheduling isn’t the only reason the Vols should be avoiding a team like Washington. Such a change of pace during the schedule is another reason, and this one specifically refers to them traveling to the Northwest in a regular season matchup anyway.

Last fall, I applauded the Vols for getting rid of the Army Black Knights on their 2022 schedule. Army still runs the triple-option, and that change of pace when preparing for a brutal SEC schedule this day in age is too much to deal with. Well, the same thing holds true with going to a different part of the country.

Labor Day in 2030 will be on Sept. 2, meaning that the Sept. 7 matchup will at least be the second game of the year for the Vols. It’s already a dramatic change for them to have to go play in that weather and in that time zone.

However, this goes back to the new SEC schedule. If the league moves to nine games, then it’s very possible the Vols begin SEC play the week after visiting Washington. That’s not an adjustment they need to force themselves to make.

Scheduling hard for pride is the equivalent of quarterbacks who refuse to slide when running because they want to show their toughness. It’s not logical. Tennessee football is right to schedule big-name non-conference opponents, but they have to be smart about it. This wasn’t the best move by Danny White.