Tennessee football is a top 10 team this offseason, according to one metric.

The Vols, who are coming off of their first-ever College Football Playoff run, were No. 10 in ESPN's updated Football Power Index for the 2025 season this week.

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The computer-generated FPI measures team strength and predicts a team's performance.

Tennessee, which was not ranked in the network's "way-too-early" rankings last month, is one of 13 SEC teams inside the top 25 with Texas (1), Georgia (2), Alabama (3), Texas A&M (8), LSU (12), Ole Miss (13), Auburn (14), South Carolina (15), Oklahoma (16), Florida (18), Arkansas (22) and Missouri (23) making up the rest of the league, according to FPI.

Based on the FPI predictions, the Vols are projected to win 8.7 games with 3.4 losses. It gives Tennessee a healthy 97.5% chance to win six games, and a 38.5% chance of reaching the playoff for the second-straight year.

FPI is less optimistic about the Vols winning the SEC, giving them just a 4.2% chance, and an even slimmer chance of winning the national championship at 2.3%. It does give Tennessee a 5.6% chance of making the national title game, though.

The Vols enter the offseason with some question marks after winning 10 games for the second time in four years in 2024.

Tennessee lost starting quarterback Nico Iamaleava to the transfer portal in a highly publicized move that has headlined the college football news circuit for the last two months.

The Vols added ex-Appalachian State and UCLA quarterback Joey Aguilar, who will compete with redhsirt freshman Jake Merklinger and freshman George MacIntyre for the starting job.

The winner will be leading an offense that will feature some new faces on the offensive line, and a wide receiving corps that has potential, but is largely unproven after the departures of starters Bru McCoy (out of eligibility), Dont'e Thornton Jr. (NFL) and Squirrel White ( transfer).

Returning running backs DeSean Bishop and Peyton Lewis, as well as Duke transfer Star Thomas, will be tasked with replacing the production lost by Dylan Sampson, who is off to the NFL after a record-breaking season.

A top 10 unit a year ago, the Tennessee defense lost edge rusher and first round draft pick James Pearce Jr., but returns key pieces at linebacker and in the secondary, including corners Rickey Gibson III and Jermod McCoy, who is rehabing from an ACL injury that sidelined him in the spring.

The Vols open with Syracuse on Aug. 31 at Mercedes-Benz Stadium in Atlanta (Noon ET, ABC). The Orange are No. 62 in the latest FPI and projected to win 4.6 games.

Tennessee hosts Georgia, the FPI's second SEC and national championship favorite, on Sept. 13 at Neyland Stadium and go to Alabama on Oct. 18, where it is looking for its first win in Tuscaloosa since 2003.

Both the Bulldogs and Crimson Tide are projected to win more than nine games, based on FPI.

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