Where Tennessee Football is ranked in ESPN's final SP+ preseason ratings
Tennessee Football came in at No. 15 in ESPN’s final preseason SP+ rankings, which were released on Tuesday. The Vols have an overall rating of 19.2 with an offensive rating of 37.7, defensive rating of 18.6 and special teams ratings of 0.2.
Those numbers leave Tennessee ranked 14th on offense, 20th on defense and 52nd on special teams.
Georgia topped the SP+ rankings, ahead of Ohio State, Oregon, Alabama and Texas in the top five. Penn State was No. 6, ahead of Michigan, Ole Miss, Notre Dame and LSU rounding out the top 10. Missouri was ranked 11th, with Florida State at No. 12, Oklahoma at No. 13 and Texas A&M at No. 14.
ESPN’s Football Power Index has Tennessee ranked No. 9 overall with a projected win-loss of 8.6-3.5. The FPI gives the Vols a 95.4% chance to win at least six games, a 5.5% chance to win the SEC, a 36.9% chance to make the 12-team College Football Playoff, a 6.0% chance to make the national championship game and a 2.7% chance to win the national title.
A closer look at ESPN’s SP+ rankings
ESPN’s SP+ projections primarily factor in a football program’s returning production, recent recruiting and recent history.
“How good have you been recently?” ESPN’s Bill Connelly wrote. “Whom do you have coming back? How good are the players replacing those you don’t have coming back? That’s loosely what we ask when we’re setting expectations for a team; it’s also what these projections attempt to do objectively.”
No. 15 has been a popular ranking for Tennessee during the preseason. The Vols were ranked No. 15 in the US LBM Coaches Poll last week and were No. 15 in the Associated Press Preseason Top 25 on Monday.
Georgia is the preseason No. 1 in both the Coaches Poll and the AP Top 25, with both polls having the same top five, with Ohio State at No 2 ahead Oregon, Texas and Alabama, respectively.
Tennessee’s schedule includes two teams ranked in the top four of the SP+, six teams in the top 30 and two teams ranked near the bottom of the 134-team ranking: No. 1 Georgia, No. 4 Alabama, No. 13 Oklahoma, No. 22 Kentucky, No. 23 Florida, No. 29 North Carolina State, No. 44 Arkansas, No. 55 Mississippi State, No. 89 Vanderbilt, No. 124 UTEP, No. 130 Kent State.
Season Opener: Tennessee vs. Chattanooga, Aug. 31, 12:45 p.m. ET, SEC Network
Tennessee opens the season against Chattanooga on August 31 (12:45 p.m. Eastern Time, TV: SEC Network) and faces North Carolina State on September 7 in Charlotte (7:30 p.m. ET, ABC),
After hosting Kent State on September 14, the Vols open SEC play with road games at Oklahoma (September 21) and at Arkansas (October 5).
Tennessee hosts Florida and Alabama back-to-back on October 12 and October 19, respectively, then has home games against Kentucky (November 2) and Mississippi State (November 9) before going to Georgia on November 16.
