Tennessee is set to face Illinois in the Music City Bowl on Tuesday. The Volunteers are currently practicing at a local Nashville high school while the Illini get to use the facilities at Vanderbilt.
They refused to share the same facility as their most hated rival after a demoralizing beatdown last month.
Although I understand and respect the dynamics at play here, this seems like an overreaction. A college football program should probably just take advantage of the best facilities offered to them. Oh well.
Tennessee will play Illinois in the Music City Bowl.
The bowl selection process obviously starts with the College Football Playoff. Once the field of 12 is set, the remaining non-Playoff bowl games can start to pick who they want to play in their respective games.
Each bowl game has a specific designation in terms of what conferences can be invited. Some the upper-tier bowls are more strict. The lower-tier bowls are more open to whatever teams are still available.
The matchup for the Music City Bowl, as things currently stand, will always feature a team from the SEC and a team from the Big Ten. It is next on the list in terms of priority for the SEC, kind of.
The Citrus Bowl will always get to select the first SEC team that did not make the playoff. From there — in no particularly order — the next selection goes to the Music City, Gator, Texas, Liberty, Las Vegas and Duke’s Mayo Bowls. They get to pick in a set order each year.
This year, in 2025-26, the Citrus Bowl selected Texas to play Michigan. The Music City Bowl chose the Tennessee Volunteers to play the Illinois Fighting Illini. It was a no-brainer.
Vols fans who don’t already live in Nashville will for the game. I don’t know know how well the Illini will travel but the crowd Nissan Stadium should be close to a sellout from the home-state team alone.
The Volunteers refused to practice at Vanderbilt.
The rivalry between Tennessee and Vanderbilt dates back to 1892. They have played 120 times since.
Although the Volunteers currently lead the all-time series record 79-33-5, the Commodores won four times in the last decade and won the most recent meeting at the end of November. Diego Pavia led his team to a 45-24 blowout win at Neyland Stadium. It was a statement win on the road.
As the SEC representative for the Music City Bowl, Tennessee was offered first rights to practice at the Vanderbilt team facility on West End this week. Head coach Josh Heupel said no way.
Illinois head coach Bret Bielema was thrilled by his opponent’s decision.
“The people here in Nashville have been absolutely awesome,” he said. “To use Vanderbilt’s facility, and SEC team, and we’re the first Big 10 team to be in this building. Usually the SEC is always in here. But I know Tennessee didn’t want to use Vandy’s facilities, which I understand. I understand rivalries. But we’ve been a benefiter of that. It’s an unbelievable facility. I talked to [Vanderbilt head coach Clark Lea] before we came down here, and to have this facility has been absolutely awesome.”
The Commodores recently completed a mult-million-dollar renovation to their football facility and to their stadium. They have the newest facility in the SEC, if not the country, and the Illini are loving it.
Meanwhile, the Volunteers started practice in Nashville on the day after Christmas at a local high school. Tennessee is using the facilities at Montgomery Bell Academy because it won’t use its rival’s facilities after a demoralizing blowout loss to end the regular season.