Tennessee coach Josh Heupel during a college football game between Tennessee and UAB at Neyland Stadium in Knoxville, Tenn., on Sept. 20, 2025. Tennessee defeated UAB. Caitie McMekin/News Sentinel / USA TODAY NETWORK via Imagn Images

Tennessee Volunteers Discover Three Permanent Conference Opponents

Originally posted on Tennessee Volunteers on SI
By Jonathan Williams | Last updated Sep 22, 2025 10:02 AM ET

The Tennessee Volunteers have discovered their three permanent conference opponents.

The SEC is set to move to a nine game conference schedule starting next season. The schedule will be revealed on Tuesday but the three permanent annual opponents have already been revealed for each team.

The Tennessee Volunteers will play Alabama, Vanderbilt and Kentucky every single season. It is worth noting that the annual opponents will be reviewed every four years by the conference to decide if changes need to be made.

BREAKING: Annual SEC College Football opponents for the next 4 seasons per @clowfb https://t.co/nm9NpSUTc2 pic.twitter.com/G0X3qkgJq7
— On3 (@On3sports) September 22, 2025

There were several ideas floated around for Tennessee's annual opponents. It seemed like the Volunteers were either going to get Kentucky or Florida on top of Vanderbilt and Alabama. All things considered, the Volunteers are likely happy that they got the three opponents that they did compared to what some of the other conference teams received.

The rest of Tennessee's 2026 conference schedule will be released on Tuesday, along with the rest of the conference's schedule.

This article first appeared on Tennessee Volunteers on SI and was syndicated with permission.

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