Where the Tennessee Vols fall in ESPN's preseason SEC power rankings

With the 2024 season set to get underway in just a few weeks, ESPN published their full 2024 SEC season preview on Thursday.

Included in their preview is their preseason SEC Power rankings.

It should come as no surprise that the Georgia Bulldogs are No. 1 in ESPN's SEC power rankings, followed by the Texas Longhorns (a preseason media darling) and the Alabama Crimson Tide.

The Ole Miss Rebels and the Missouri Tigers (two other favorites of the media) round out the top five.

The Tennessee Vols come in at No. 6.

From ESPN : After not being relevant nationally for much of the 2000s, Tennessee has surged back into the upper half of the SEC under Josh Heupel and is looking for more.

Tennessee has been consistently ranked below Ole Miss and Missouri by the majority of media outlets this summer, despite the fact that UT's program has just as much upside as both of those programs (it's further proof that groupthink is rampant in college football media).

Power rankings, of course are completely meaningless -- especially preseason power rankings. They're based entirely on what a program did the season before and what the media thinks will happen in the upcoming season. In other words, nothing about them is based in reality.

But hey, it's still fun to see how certain teams are viewed ahead of the season. Then we can revisit these rankings after the season and chuckle at how spectacularly wrong they turned out to be.

Related: Former Tennessee HC Butch Jones really does not want you to forget that he was an analyst under Nick Saban at Alabama