Who is Tennessee football’s biggest rival?

The Tennessee football program has done so much winning historically that the Volunteers have developed several intriguing rivalries across the southeastern landscape.

With the Third Saturday in October on tap this weekend, now is a good time to re-examine who exactly is the Tennessee football program’s biggest rival.

Historically, is it not that hard to argue that the Volunteers’ biggest rival on the gridiron is the Alabama Crimson Tide. Not only is this a border war, but this rivalry is a major reason why the SEC created cross-divisional rivalries in the first place back with 1992’s expansion to include Arkansas and South Carolina. The Third Saturday in October must be played and it must be played annually.

But with Alabama having not lost a game to the Volunteers since the dawn of the Nick Saban era, is this really the biggest rivalry Tennessee has on the football field currently?

Third Saturday in October: Is this Tennessee’s biggest football rivalry?

For those outside of Vol Nation, here is how Tennessee’s traditional rivalries break down. Historically, they have three primary SEC rivals: Alabama, the Florida Gators and the Vanderbilt Commodores.

The Kentucky Wildcats are a very close fourth rivalry, but Tennessee had dominated that historically until very recently. Tennessee also has a new rivalry with the Georgia Bulldogs.

If we want to go beyond those five just a bit, Tennessee has historic, albeit dormant, rivalries with the Auburn Tigers, the Georgia Tech Yellow Jackets and the Ole Miss Rebels.

Unlike the five listed above, the Volunteers do not play these schools annually. They used to be a huge deal but SEC expansion twice over and conference realignment has put these three rivalries on the back burner.

So at this time, the biggest rival in Tennessee’s book has to be Florida. It picked up steam in the 1990s with Steve Spurrier in Gainesville and Phillip Fulmer in Knoxville.

While Florida has had the upper hand in this annual game for the better part of 15 years, Tennessee did beat the Gators in Knoxville in 2016. For the time being, this rivalry edges out the one the Vols have with Alabama.

Until Tennessee starts beating Alabama and Florida more regularly, it could soon be Vanderbilt.

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