Peyton Manning might end up avoiding what would've been a tough situation for the Tennessee Vols legend.
Last week, the SEC announced that it's sticking with an eight-game conference schedule for the 2025 season. And each team in 2025 will play the same eight opponents that they'll play in 2024. The only difference is that the home/away matchups will be flipped (Tennessee will host Alabama in 2024 and then travel to Tuscaloosa in 2025, for example).
This scheduling format means that college football might get robbed of a matchup between Texas QB Arch Manning and Tennessee.
Arch, the nephew of Peyton, will be eligible for the NFL draft after the 2025 season. Arch could choose to stick around in Austin for another season, but if he's as advertised, he could be an early first round pick. And that might be too tempting to pass up.
That would mean that Peyton would avoid having to watch his nephew play against his alma mater, which would undoubtedly be a tough situation.
Family is everything for the Mannings. But so is football. If the Vols are competing for a national championship in 2025, it would probably be tough for Peyton to root for Arch over his alma mater possibly securing a spot in the playoff. At the very least, it probably wouldn't be an enjoyable game for Peyton.
The rest of college football will miss out on this matchup (unless Arch returns to Texas in 2026, or unless Texas and Tennessee meet in the playoff and/or the SEC Championship game), but Peyton is almost certainly breathing a sigh of relief that he might not have to make an incredibly tough decision between the two things he loves the most -- family and football.
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