ESPN analysts have widely varying bowl projections for Vols going into 2025, but one offers a chance at payback that Tennessee and its fans would love to get originally appeared on A to Z Sports.
The Tennessee Volunteers have high hopes entering 2025 of returning to the College Football Playoff for the second straight season despite a number of question marks across the roster.
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Two particular analysts don’t see that happening. ESPN’s Mark Schlabach and Kyle Bonagura put out their preseason bowl projections, and they see the season going substantially differently from each other.
Schlabach projects the Vols to play in the Texas Bowl on December 27 against Iowa State. That would be a major drop off from the caliber of postseason game the Vols have been used to under Josh Heupel in recent years.
However, Bonagura is a bit more bullish on Tennessee and has them taking on Michigan in the Citrus Bowl on New Years Day. And that’s a matchup that would be quite attractive to Tennessee fans as far as a consolation prize for missing out on the playoff. It would also be a repeat of the 2001 season, when Tennessee clobbered the Wolverines 45-17 in Orlando.
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As timing would have it, Michigan was handed down its punishment by the NCAA on Friday for the Connor Stalions sign stealing scandal from 2022-23. Michigan’s penalties included an unprecedented fine expected to exceed $20 million, Stalions was given an 8-year show cause, and Jim Harbaugh was given a 10-year show cause. The NCAA’s report made reference to Stalions hiring staff to attend games of “future opponents” and record their signals – “13 future opponents a total of 56 times across 52 contests” according to the report. It did not make mention of Tennessee specifically, although the Vols’ game against Kentucky in 2022 is one that had been identified as having been allegedly scouted by Stalions’ team. The theory is that information was passed onto South Carolina to help beat the Vols and benefit Michigan.
The season has yet to play out still, so bowl games at this juncture are amusingly premature. However, if Michigan and Tennessee were to end up in a bowl game, how entertaining and spicy that matchup could be, both on the field and among the fans.
This story was originally reported by A to Z Sports on Aug 15, 2025, where it first appeared.
