The Tennessee–Texas game time is a slap in the face to Vols fans

Tennessee fans have every right to be furious after the game time for Tennessee-Texas was announced by ESPN yesterday.

The Vols will host Texas on September 26 in the annual Checkerboard Game, a game that should have one of the best atmospheres in college football all season. Instead, ESPN slapped it into the noon window. How does that even make sense? For a matchup of this magnitude, that decision is hard to understand.

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Tennessee will still have a home-field advantage, but one of the best parts about a big-time matchup like this is the anticipation that builds throughout the day and the atmosphere as the sun begins to set during the game. Instead, the Vols and Longhorns will be playing in the middle of a blazing hot Saturday afternoon.

Not to mention, Tennessee has a night game the week before against Kennesaw State and then has to turn around and play Texas at noon.

Its worth noting, he SEC slate is loaded during Week 4, with Oklahoma vs. Georgia, Texas A&M vs. LSU, and Ole Miss vs. Florida. However, I’d argue that Tennessee vs. Texas is one of the best matchups of the week. The spread is only Texas -7, and the game should feature two Top 25 teams as long as both programs take care of business during the first three weeks of the season.

There's also a big quarterback storyline potentially in this matchup. If Tennessee is 3-0 entering the game, it will likely be because its quarterback play has been solid. Seeing either Faizon Brandon or George MacIntyre, who are both freshmen, go head-to-head with Arch Manning would be a storyline ESPN could easily market, but instead, the game is stuck in the noon window.

Is Tennessee-Texas a game time a sign of a falling program?

People on X have argued that this is a sign Josh Heupel has lost momentum and that Tennessee is trending in the wrong direction, but I completely disagree. Game times can be very misleading. While it feels like every big game should kick off at 7 or 8 p.m., that simply isn’t always the case.

For example, the 2021 matchup between Michigan and Michigan State was an instant classic. Kenneth Walker III scored five touchdowns and led Michigan State to a dramatic win. Both teams were ranked in the Top 10, yet the game was played in the Big Noon slot on Fox. Likewise, when Georgia opened the 2024 season against Clemson, that game was also played at noon. Sometimes there simply isn’t much rhyme or reason to it.

Fans are upset about this, and rightfully so, but ultimately, one game time does not define a program. In Week 2, Tennessee travels to Atlanta to face Georgia Tech in a primetime matchup on ESPN, which is huge exposure for the program. It’s a big game and a major television draw.

The underlying issue isn't that Tennessee drew a noon kickoff; it's that the checkered game and atmosphere won't get the justice it deserves in front of two big-time brands. However, if Josh Heupel and the Vols go out and win the game, nobody will care what time it started.

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