Tennessee football survived a late push from Arkansas on Saturday night, securing a 34-31 win to improve to 2-1 in conference play and 5-1 on the season.
Alabama is also coming off a close win, beating Missouri 27-24 in Columbia. The Tigers had the Tide on the ropes but weren't able to finish the job late in the fourth quarter.
Now, Tennessee will focus on Alabama, which comes into the game with a 5-1 record and a 3-0 conference record, having won against No. 5 Georgia, No. 16 Vanderbilt, and No. 14 Missouri.
With two of those three wins on the road, Alabama is rolling in SEC play and will be a favorite in all of its remaining games until proven otherwise.
That will unsurprisingly be the case as FanDuel opened with Alabama opening as 9.5-point favorites over the Vols. The public seems to like the Vols at those odds, with 91% of the bets on Tennessee to cover.
As of Sunday morning, that lines sits at 8.5 points, keeping Tennessee at more than a touchdown underdog with the Third Saturday in October now less than seven days away.
Tennessee has +250 odds to win the game, while Alabama has -315 odds. Vegas is also expecting another high-scoring affair between the Vols and Tide, with the over/under set at 62.5 points.
Alabama's homefield advantage is undoubtedly playing a factor in the line, but I would expect Alabama to be favored in this game regardless of the location.
The Vols and Tide are set for another primetime ranked matchup in Bryant-Denny Stadium with a 7:30 PM ET kickoff on ABC.