Tennessee football: Surprising new rivalry suggested for Vols amidst conference realignment

SEC expansion and conference realignment across the country has some fans already depressed about certain rivalries that will come to an end. Tennessee football could lose some of its oldest rivalries. However, with the loss of rivalries come new ones, and the Vols could enjoy that as well.

Dean Straka of 247Sports, though, had a shocking suggestion for the Vols’ new potential rivalry. He mentioned the other UT that dons orange coming into the conference by 2025, the Texas Longhorns. Nobody is predicting that.

Obviously, given the nature of the conference, no pod system or division would have the Vols and Texas on the same side. Your best chance is to have them somehow set up a formula where there are permanent interdivisional opponents, but that seems unlikely. Here’s what was written about this possibility.

"Regardless of how frequently the Vols and ‘Horns clash, it’s going to be a fun road trip for each fanbase to towns with plenty of character and football cathedrals that can each hold more than 100,000 at full capacity. There’s even a bit of the Texas-Oklahoma rivalry infused into this one as long as former Sooners quarterback Josh Heupel remains the head coach in Knoxville. Let’s just hope the football being played is also entertaining when these storied programs do eventually meet as conference foes for the first time. They’ve only met three times in the past, most recently in 1969."

Despite how unlikely this is to happen, it would be intriguing for Tennessee football. If the pod system does happen, you could feasibly see the Vols in a division with the South Carolina Gamecocks, Kentucky Wildcats and Vanderbilt Commodores.

Nobody considers Vanderbilt or Kentucky a rivalry on Rocky Top anymore, and while South Carolina is indeed close it seems like every year except last year, there’s no border or in-state war there. As a result, it doesn’t seem as natural.

Of course, the Florida Gators didn’t seem natural as well, and UT could end up in a pod with South Carolina, them and the Georgia Bulldogs, and UGA does seem more natural as long as the Vols could be competitive. The most common suggested pod, though, is the Vols, Vandy, the Alabama Crimson Tide and Auburn Tigers.

Still, the point of all this is that there’s a chance Tennessee football fans could lose rivalries they hold dear, and that would make a rivalry with Texas worth paying attention to. Still, it just doesn’t seem likely at this point, even if they do have some connections.