Few matchups in the history of the Vanderbilt–Tennessee rivalry have carried the implications that this Saturday’s does.
Both of these teams will likely enter this clash as ranked teams in the latest College Football Playoff poll, and the Commodores are looking to remain in the hunt for a CFP spot with a victory.
Ahead of the marquee matchup, Circa Sports released its opening betting lines for Rivalry Week’s action. The initial college football betting lines from Circa have Tennessee as a 3.5-point favorite in Knoxville. The total has been set 64.5 points.
As mentioned, Vanderbilt’s margin for error is razor thin. Diego Pavia & Co. figure to benefit from Georgia Tech’s loss to Pitt over the weekend, but they will still likely need a win in this game and some more help to crack the 12-team field.
Vandy is fresh off a dominant 45-17 victory over Kentucky and appears to be playing its best ball at the right time. Pavia himself threw for 484 yards, ran for 48 more and accounted for 6 touchdowns in the win.
Meanwhile, Tennessee is similarly peaking at the right time, as the Vols just tied their largest win ever over Florida with a 31-11 victory on Saturday night. Joey Aguilar’s offense jumped out to a fast start by scoring all 31 of its points in the first half, while the defense largely shut down the Gators.
Vanderbilt and Tennessee will kick off at 3:30 ET, with the game being broadcast by ESPN.
Parker is currently the sports editor for the Enterprise-Journal in McComb, Mississippi. He's a graduate from Mizzou who has experience covering the Tiger football and basketball beats for SB Nation, and he's worked for a variety of sports news outlets in the past.
