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These historic stats explain the magnitude of this Alabama-Tennessee showdown
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The game of the year to date in the SEC and college football will take place in Knoxville on Saturday, as No. 3 Alabama visits No. 6 Tennessee.
Throughout the week, one of the major storylines surrounding the game will be the status of Crimson Tide quarterback Bryce Young.
The reigning Heisman Trophy winner left Alabama’s win at Arkansas two weeks ago after sustaining a shoulder injury in the 2nd quarter.
And he did not play in Saturday night’s win over Texas A&M, although reports indicated that the decision was a precautionary measure.
Alabama-Tennessee has been a significant rivalry for years, known by many for being played on the 3rd Saturday in October each year.
None of the recent meetings, however, will have garnered the type of attention that Saturday’s game will.
More specifically, this will be the first time since 1989 that both teams enter the game undefeated. And it will mark the first matchup of top-6 AP teams at Neyland Stadium since 1998.
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· First meeting of two top-six @AP_Top25 ranked teams in Neyland Stadium in 24 years (Sept. 19, 1998 – UF vs. UT)
· First time both teams unbeaten at time of meeting since Oct. 21, 1989— Bill Martin (@Bill_Martin) October 9, 2022
Even with Young’s status still somewhat up in the air, Vegas likes Alabama.
Circa Sports released its Week 7 lines earlier Sunday, and the Crimson Tide opened as 8-point favorites.
Saturday’s showdown between the Volunteers and Alabama is set for 3:30 p.m. (ET) and will be televised by CBS.
"Chris Wallace covers college football for Saturday Down South. He has covered college athletics for multiple newspapers and also worked previously for Rivals.com and GolfChannel.com."
