Media Poll Predicts Tennessee Football To Finish Lower In The SEC

AtoZ Sports

Lucas Panzica discusses the recent SEC Media Poll that ranked the Tennessee Volunteers to place lower in the SEC for the 2025 football season, and why a step back in the program could likely happen

Transcript

00:00SEC Media Days is in the books and the SEC preseason media poll has Tennessee finishing

00:06a lot lower than Vols fans might think. I'm going to tell you why you shouldn't be surprised

00:10that Tennessee is picked to finish as low as they are.

00:16Hey, Lucas Panzeek here from 104.5 The Zone and A to Z Sports. So,

00:20talking season is almost over. The regular season is right around the corner and each and every

00:25year. At the end of Media Days, the SEC Media predicts the order of finish in the conference

00:31for the upcoming season. The Tennessee Vols this season are picked to finish ninth in the

00:37Southeastern Conference, one spot behind Texas A&M. So, bottom seven, that is what the SEC Media

00:44thinks Tennessee will do in the 2025 season. Now, if you're a Tennessee fan, I'm not sure what your

00:50baseline expectation is for this season. It's reasonable to expect a step back from a college

00:55football playoff appearance, especially after the drama that ended with your starting quarterback,

01:01Nico Iamaliava, hitting the portal and ending up at UCLA. But if we're being honest, Tennessee

01:06very likely could have taken a step back, even if Nico was still with this team. We've talked about

01:12it a lot on here. Talented, but unproven. That pretty much describes Tennessee's roster. So,

01:18you shouldn't be surprised that the SEC Media does not have high expectations for this Tennessee

01:24football team. But I will say this. Number one, last season and most seasons in the SEC,

01:30there's virtually no difference between, let's say, fifth or tenth in terms of order of finish

01:36in the conference. In fact, last year, only one conference game separated the fourth-place

01:42finisher in the SEC and the tenth-place finisher in the SEC. The margins are that fine. So, Tennessee,

01:49with a somewhat favorable schedule, at least compared to some other SEC programs, will have

01:54many opportunities to finish higher than the media is picking them to finish at SEC Media Days. And

02:01also, there are a lot of SEC teams that go into this season with their fan bases expecting a big

02:07step forward. Florida fans, South Carolina fans, Oklahoma, Auburn fans are all expecting with a

02:14baseline expectation that their teams will take a leap in 2025. That's not always the case,

02:21though. And many of those fan bases will be disappointed. Meanwhile, Tennessee is expected

02:25to take a step back. But there is very much a scenario in which Tennessee fans feel a whole lot

02:30better about the state of their program by the end of the season than a lot of those fan bases that

02:36are expecting a step forward that statistically is not likely to happen for all of them. Meanwhile,

02:42Tennessee has an opportunity here to win some games they're not expected to win, to have some

02:47breakout players, and to finish the season with a winning record and a lot of momentum going into

02:532026, the number one quarterback in the country, Faison Brandon, coming down the pipe. So, no, you

02:59shouldn't expect Tennessee to be in the college football playoff last year. Maybe finishing ninth in

03:03the SEC is a little bit low. But I'll tell you this, Tennessee coaches and Tennessee players would have

03:08it no other way. They're hoping that this offseason brought them together, that's at least what they're

03:13preaching, and that they'll do a little bit of surprising of their own in the upcoming season.

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