Since defeating No. 17 Pittsburgh in overtime on Saturday, Tennessee has both jumped up in the AP rankings and up in the National Championship odds race.
On Sunday, Tennessee was revealed to have the No. 15 ranking in the AP Top 25 heading into their week three matchup against Akron.
Additionally, Tennessee has also jumped into the Top 10 for National Championship odds on two major sports betting publications: FanDuel and DraftKings.
According to Fanduel, Tennessee comes in with the eighth-highest NCAA Football FBS Championship odds for the 2022-2023 season. Fanduel has Tennessee at +6000, which is one spot below Oklahoma (+5000) and one spot above Arkansas (+8000).
DraftKings also has Tennessee as the eighth-highest team in their future projections at +7000. The Vols come in one spot behind Oklahoma (+4000) and one spot above Penn State (+8000).
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After starting the season with a dominating victory over Ball State and a nail-biting victory over Pittsburgh in overtime, Tennessee is one of the hotter teams in the country. The Vols have gone from unranked to No. 15 in just a span of two weeks.
Tennessee boasts a high-scoring, up-tempo offense complete with a veteran quarterback and an All-SEC wide receiver. And on the defensive side, Tim Banks’ crew has shown an ability to be clutch at the end of games. Not saying that has been the case every time, but just look at two of the Vols’ last seven games going back to the 2021 season.
“Coach Josh Heupel became the first Tennessee coach in the AP Poll era (1936) to record at least one road win against a nationally ranked team in each of his first two seasons with the program,” Chris Low wrote for ESPN on Sunday.
Tennessee picked up a ranked win on the road last season when they defeated No. 18 Kentucky in Lexington. While the game was a high-scoring affair, it was Tennessee’s defense that was able to buckle down and provide the final defensive stop to seal the game for the Vols.
Fast forward six games to Tennessee’s 2022 road matchup with No. 17 Pitt. The Volunteers’ defense was able to come up clutch in overtime to once again stop a ranked team from finding the endzone and potentially the win.
Those two games show the Tennessee defense’s ability to bend but not break at times. Which is important regarding the longevity of the season. We’ll see how the Vols continue to handle one-score games throughout the season.
Tennessee is still a long shot to win the National Championship, and betting odds do absolutely nothing to affect the product on the field. Remember, this is a business. But, at the same time, it is interesting to see the oddsmakers favor the Vols in such a significant fashion.
FanDuel NCAAF FBS Championship Odds Top 10
- Georgia (+180)
- Alabama (+200)
- Ohio State (+300)
- Clemson (+1000)
- USC (+1200)
- Michigan (+2000)
- Oklahoma (+5000)
- Tennessee (+6000)
- Arkansas (+8000)
- Penn State (+8000)
DraftKings NCAAF FBS Championship Odds Top 10
- Alabama (+200)
- Georgia (+210)
- Ohio State (+290)
- USC (+1200)
- Clemson (+1200)
- Michigan (+2000)
- Oklahoma (+4000)
- Tennessee (+7000)
- Penn State (+8000)
- Miami – FL (+8000)
