What we like, dislike about Vols' 2024 SEC football schedule

The long-awaited 2024 SEC football schedule is here and the league has never looked stronger.

With the arrival of Texas and Oklahoma, the league is expanding to 16 teams and axing divisions for the first time in 32 years. Their addition brings even more marquee match ups to the schedule while sustaining a number of traditional rivalries.

Such was the case for Tennessee, which will play Alabama, Florida, Georgia, Kentucky and Vanderbilt while facing Oklahoma as well as Mississippi State and Arkansas.

The SEC received some criticism for not going to a nine-game scheduling format at the conference's spring meetings last month, but it is clear that there was an effort to maintain historic games.

VolReport managing editor Noah Taylor and assistant managing editor Ryan Sylvia take a look at what they like and dislike about the Vols’ new schedule.

Noah: Tennessee and Oklahoma had a memorable finish the last time the two teams met in 2015.

In a game that featured Josh Dobbs and eventual Heisman winner Baker Mayfield, Oklahoma overcame a multiple-score deficit and a hostile environment at Neyland Stadium to beat the Vols in overtime, 31-24.

Now Tennessee will get the chance to play at Oklahoma after its return trip to Norman in 2020 was scrapped due to COVID. The Vols last played the Sooners on the road in 2014.

As a program, Tennessee is in a much better position under Josh Heupel than it was then, while Oklahoma is looking to improve in head coach Brent Venables' second season. A former national championship-winning quarterback for the Sooners in 200-01, Heupel returning to play his alma mater makes this game even more intriguing.

Ryan: The biggest positive from the announced schedule is the rivalries that will be preserved for the season.

With the eight-game format alternating seven opponents from year-to-year, some annual games that Vol fans have come to enjoy such as the Third Saturday in October and the match with Florida would be missing from the schedule every other year.

However, this won't be the case in 2024. Not only does Tennessee play Alabama and the Gators at home, but it is also set to play rivalry matches against Kentucky and Georgia.

Although some of these games will prove to be difficult wins, it will be extremely interesting to see how the Vols fare against their in-conference foes. Heupel has already proven to be capable of winning big games and snapping streaks, as well.

Noah: Every current SEC team will have to play Texas or Oklahoma next season and while it makes sense that Tennessee drew the Sooners, there is a lot of potential for a new rivalry with Texas that will have to wait.

Tennessee has only played Texas three times with the last meeting coming in the 1969 Cotton Bowl, but the two programs share a lot of similarities. There's the back-and-forth about which school can claim the UT moniker, a debate that could be settled right away on the field, not to mention the history of the valiant Tennesseeans that helped bring Texas into the Union (this would make for a great trophy theme).

Obviously the Vols and Longhorns will meet in the near future but seeing that game played right out of the gate in 2024—either in Austin or Knoxville—would have been very appealing, especially considering their current trajectories.

Tennessee won 11 games in Heupel's second season and the offense shows no signs of slowing down while Texas is trending up heading into year two under Steve Sarkisian. Both teams signed two of the top quarterbacks in the 2023 class in Nico Iamaleava and Arch Manning, which would likely be going up against each other.

Ryan: With the teams on the schedule alternating every year, Tennessee now knows who its opponents will be for the 2025 season, as well, if the scheduling format stays the same.

On the slate would be Auburn, LSU, Missouri, Ole Miss, South Carolina, Texas, Texas A&M and annual opponent Vanderbilt.

Although this schedule is not very daunting and should play into a high win count for the Vols, a lot of the matchups are not very interesting. Tennessee used to be strong rivals with Auburn, but due to just five meetings since 2004, the flair to the game has been mostly lost.

There can be an attempt to market the game against Ole Miss as the "Manning Bowl" or another battle with Lane Kiffin, but that only goes so far. A UT vs. UT match up with Texas led by Arch Manning is also intriguing but nothing compared to the program's historic rivalries.

There is a chance the conference switches to a different format by the 2025 season causing this projected schedule to never come to fruition, but if it does, it'll feature a much more boring slate of games than 2024.

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