KNOXVILLE — The new season is just around the corner, but future out-of-conference, home-and-home series’ have been making headlines in recent weeks.

Last week, Florida State announced a “neutral site” series with LSU with a game being played in New Orleans to kickoff the 2022 season, and will be followed up by a season opener in Orlando in 2023. On Tuesday, Clemson and LSU announced a future home-and-home series, with Clemson playing host in 2025 and LSU in 2026.

While the list ESPN’s Chris Low posted features a few future nonconference games versus Power 5 teams involving Tennessee, I wanted to take a look at five other teams I would like to see Tennessee schedule.

Tennessee vs. Clemson

This is an obvious first choice, for many reasons. One, the proximity of the schools. Knoxville is less than a 3 1/2-hour drive from Clemson’s little corner of the South Carolina Upcountry. Dabo Swinney and the Tigers’ championship-level success in recent years has also opened the door for Clemson to steer some of East Tennessee’s homegrown talent their way, including 5-star wide receiver and Oak Ridge native Tee Higgins, who spurned the Volunteers in favor of Clemson. A series with the Tigers could give Tennessee chance to show local prospects that they are still worth staying in-state for.

Another reason, from a spectator’s standpoint would be back-to-back seasons that feature a Tennessee road game in Death Valley and vice versa. How fun would it be to see Clemson come to Neyland Stadium on a Saturday afternoon to open the season? Or Tennessee going to the other Death Valley on a Saturday night? Both fan bases wouldn’t miss an opportunity to travel to either game. One thing is certain, there would be a lot of orange.

Clemson hasn’t been to Knoxville since 1976. The Vols haven’t been to Clemson since 1919. It’s time to correct that.

Tennessee vs. Virginia Tech

OK, so we’ve seen this one. Pretty recently. Still, it would be exciting to see this as a home-and-home. Imagine, “Enter Sandman” vs. “Running through the ‘T.” Again, not a lot of distance separates either campus as Blacksburg and Knoxville are 3 1/2 hours apart.

That alone could make this a solid SEC/ACC rivalry. Seeing them play in front of the largest crowd in college football history at Bristol Motor Speedway was a spectacle, but a home-and-home would be so much better.

Tennessee last visited Blacksburg in 1911. Va. Tech’s last trip to Knoxville was 1937.

Tennessee vs. Penn State

These programs have actually played a regular season series before, both games happening in Knoxville during the 1971 and 1972 seasons. Tennessee won the first meeting 31-11 in the 1971 regular-season finale. They were scheduled to meet again in Game 2 of the 1972 season, but Joe Paterno made an ultimatum with Tennessee athletic director Bob Woodruff that if the game wasn’t at night (to beat the sweltering heat of early September), he would call the game off. Tennessee had lights installed at Neyland that offseason and the Penn State game became the first night game in the stadium’s history. Tennessee won that one too, 28-21 and Paterno never scheduled them again.

Credit: Rich Barnes-USA TODAY Sports

We never had a chance to see the Vols travel to Happy Valley, but that could make for a great atmosphere in an SEC/Big Ten showdown. The most recent series the Nittany Lions had with an SEC team was Alabama in 2010 and 2011. Alabama won both. Penn State is slated to play Auburn in 2021 and 2022.

Tennessee vs. Texas

Kind of like how the upcoming LSU/Clemson game will be a battle to prove whose Death Valley is better, a Tennessee/Texas clash could determine who is the better orange and white UT. Maybe we could call it the “Rick Barnes Bowl?” The schools have played each other three times — all in the Cotton Bowl, the last being in the 1969 Cotton Bowl. Texas won and has a 2-1 series lead.

Obviously, there is a lot of history dating back long before college football started that connects both regions, which made for some great Alamo-themed College Gameday signs when the show aired from College Station for the first SEC meeting between Texas A&M and Tennessee in 2016. This seems like a series that should have already been played long before now. There is still time to make it happen.

Tennessee vs. Florida State

How about a rematch of the 1998 BCS national championship game? They’ve only played twice: FSU won a regular-season meeting in 1958 in Knoxville, and the Vols won it all that night in Tempe. Hearing Rocky Top meet the Tomahawk Chop would be something else. The real battle wouldn’t even be on the field, it would be between the Pride of the Southland Marching Band and the Marching Chiefs, seeing who could play each other’s respective songs the most.

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