Even though Tennessee’s 2024 campaign won’t begin for another four months, one oddsmaker has already released early lines for a number of crucial Vols games this autumn.Five Tennessee-related games are among the many college football games that DraftKings has released point spreads for this upcoming season. Those lines indicate that Tennessee is favored versus Florida and NC State, a huge underdog against Georgia, and a minor underdog against Oklahoma and Alabama.
With 16 clubs in the league this season, four of those games are SEC matchups. Later this year, Texas and Oklahoma will formally join the conference; the Vols choose the Sooners as their newcomer. when the 2024 schedule was set. Those two programs met in 2015 and 2016 and have a connection in Tennessee head coach Josh Heupel, a national championship-winning quarterback in Norman.
The lone non-conference matchup among the Tennessee lines on DraftKings is a neutral-site game against NC State at Bank of America Stadium in Charlotte.
Here are the point spreads for those five Tennessee games on DraftKings:
- vs. NC State (September 7): 5.5-point favorite
- at Oklahoma (September 23): 5-point underdog
- Florida (October 12): 11-point favorite
- Alabama (October 19): 2-point underdog
- at Georgia (November 16): 17.5-point underdog
DraftKings also set Tennessee’s regular-season win total at 8.5 games. The Vols are 12-to-1 (+1200) to win the SEC, the sixth-best odds behind Georgia, Texas, Ole Miss, Alabama and LSU, and 35-to-1 (+3500) to win the national title match. The College Football Playoffs will now feature 12 teams, and Tennessee is one of 27 teams with odds to qualify. The Vols are +180 to land one of those coveted slots.
The five lined games are eligible to be Tennessee’s 2024 swing games. In the last seven, the Vols seem to be the favorite. Josh Heupel’s team’s remaining SEC games are against Kentucky and Mississippi State at Neyland Stadium, as well as Vanderbilt, Arkansas, and Tennessee on the road. Only the Wildcats (6.5) have a win total on DraftKings that is higher than the six wins required for bowl eligibility. The non-conference schedule is completed by Chattanooga, Kent State, and UTEP.
Florida has the same win total (4.5) as both Arkansas and Mississippi State and Tennessee is a double-digit favorite against the Gators despite having won just three times in the past 23 meetings.
With an identical victory total of 8.5 to Tennessee, NC State’s Wolfpack are fifth-best in the ACC standings, behind only Florida State, Clemson, Miami, and Louisville.
High win totals are also seen in Oklahoma (7.5), Alabama (9.5), and Georgia (10.5). For their first-ever SEC game, the Sooners will host the Vols. The Bulldogs, who were unsuccessful in their attempt to win three straight titles the previous season, had defeated the Vols seven times in a row. The Crimson Tide will make its Neyland Stadium debut for the first time since that memorable 52-49 victory against Tennessee in 2022.
August 31st is Tennessee’s season opener versus Chattanooga.
