No. 14 Tennessee football will play No. 7 Alabama in an afternoon game on Oct. 17.
The "Third Saturday in October" rivalry game will kick off at 3:30 p.m. ET at Neyland Stadium. That was announced by the SEC on Oct. 5.
It will be televised on ABC, ESPN or SEC Network. The channel will be announced at a later date.
The teams have split the two games between Tennessee coach Josh Heupel and Alabama coach Kalen DeBoer, who have a relationship that spans more than 20 years.
The Alabama (5-0, 3-0 SEC) game will be Tennessee's return to Knoxville after a road game at Arkansas (2-3, 0-2) on Oct. 10 (4:15 p.m. ET, SEC Network). The Vols lost 20-17 to Texas and beat Auburn 24-14 to start the SEC slate.
Tennessee, Alabama have defended home turf in recent meetings
Alabama leads the all-time series 61-40-7, but it's evened
out in recent years. The home team has won each of the past five meetings during the Heupel era.
This game will be at Neyland Stadium. The Vols won 52-49 over Alabama there in 2022. And they won again, 24-17, in 2024.
Alabama beat Tennessee 37-20 in Tuscaloosa in 2025.
Adam Sparks is the Tennessee football beat reporter. Email adam.sparks@knoxnews.com. X, formerly known as Twitter@AdamSparks. Support strong local journalism by subscribing at knoxnews.com/subscribe.
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This article originally appeared on Knoxville News Sentinel: Tennessee football vs Alabama game time, TV announced for rivalry clash
