Tennessee climbed one spot to No. 14 in Sunday’s AP Poll, setting up a Top 14 showdown with No. 1 Texas on Saturday afternoon in Knoxville.
The Vols opened the season at No. 20 and have steadily moved upward after a 3-0 start. Tennessee has rolled through its first three games, opening with a 56-9 win over Furman, then beating Georgia Tech 45-24, and following that with a 42-9 victory over Kennesaw State.
The SEC is packed near the top of the poll, and Tennessee checks in as the league’s sixth-highest team. The Vols trail Texas, Georgia, Ole Miss, Alabama and LSU in Sunday’s rankings.
Saturday’s game brings plenty of attention beyond the rankings. ESPN’s College GameDay is headed back to Rocky Top, and the matchup will also serve as Tennessee’s annual Checker Neyland game.
Kickoff is set for Noon ET on Saturday, Sept. 26.
According to a Tennessee press release on Sunday morning, College GameDay “will once again originate from the lawn of Ayres Hall from 9 a.m. ET until 11 a.m. The final hour of the show from 11 a.m. to noon will be held inside Neyland Stadium leading up to the noon kickoff on ABC.”
It will be the fourth time College GameDay has come to Knoxville during the Josh Heupel era. Tennessee hosted the show twice in 2022, for games against Florida and Alabama, and again in 2025 against Georgia.
The Vols and Longhorns are meeting for the first time since 1969. Their three previous matchups all came in Cotton Bowl games before 1970.
There’s another layer here, too: Arch Manning is bringing Texas back to Neyland Stadium for the first time since Peyton Manning’s last game there. Arch Manning has Texas sitting at 4-0 after the Longhorns’ win over Ohio State earlier this season.
Tennessee is listed as a 5.5-point underdog on DraftKings as of Sunday morning, though that number could still shift during the week.
The Vols enter the SEC opener coming off the 42-9 win over Kennesaw State, while Texas arrives after a 30-6 victory over UTSA. Both teams are unbeaten heading into one of the weekend’s biggest games.
In Other News...
Texas Coach Just Added More Fuel To Neyland Before Tennessee Showdown
Steve Sarkisian did the Volunteers a favor without meaning to, giving Neyland Stadium another shot of energy before Texas comes to Knoxville. The Longhorns coach called it the loudest stadium in the country ahead of the matchup, and that kind of praise only adds to the atmosphere around a game already carrying plenty of weight, with No. 1 Texas visiting No. 14 Tennessee in the annual Checker Neyland showcase.
The setting figures to be huge even by Tennessee standards, with more than 100,000 seats packed into a noon ET kickoff on ABC and a College GameDay spotlight attached. For the Vols, it is the kind of moment that can turn a September game into a full-scale event, and Sarkisian's comments only sharpen the sense that Texas knows exactly what it is walking into. [Read more 🡒]
Peyton Manning Puts Texas-Tennessee GameDay In An Awkward Spot
ESPN is bringing College GameDay to Knoxville ahead of the Sept. 26 matchup between Texas and Tennessee, setting up one of the more intriguing pregame stages of the early season. The backdrop is already loaded for Volunteers fans, with Tennessee hosting a marquee nonconference game and national attention set to descend on campus before kickoff.
The wrinkle is Peyton Manning. The former Tennessee quarterback has made it clear he would back his nephew, Texas quarterback Arch Manning, over his alma mater if asked to choose, and ESPN still has not announced its guest picker. That has left local observers wondering whether Manning would even be the fit for the role, giving GameDay an awkward little subplot before the show has a chance to get rolling. [Read more 🡒]
Peyton Manning Just Gave Vols Fans A Brutal Dilemma
Peyton Manning has always been one of Tennessees most beloved figures, and he made it clear this week that his affection for his alma mater has not changed. Even so, when the Vols meet Texas in a high-stakes SEC matchup, Manning said his family tie pulls him in another direction, since his nephew Arch is on the other sideline. It is the kind of rooting interest that feels impossible for Tennessee fans to hear from one of their own, even with the loyalty to Knoxville still intact.
The game carries plenty of weight on its own, with both teams undefeated and ranked inside the Top 15, but Mannings stance adds another layer to the buildup. It also complicates the usual pregame pageantry around College GameDay, where Manning would have been an obvious draw as the guest picker. Instead, his allegiance to family appears to leave that spot out of play, turning a marquee Saturday into a small but painful reminder of how messy college football can get when bloodlines and school pride collide. [Read more 🡒]