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Tennessee Football to face Illinois in the Music City Bowl

On3 imageby: Brent Hubbs11 hours agoBrent_Hubbs

The Tennessee football team is heading to Nashville for post-season play as the Vols will take on Illinois in the Music City Bowl. Volquest has confirmed the bowl destination first reported by On3’s Brett McMurphy.

The game is at Nissan Stadium on December 30th at 5:30pm ET and will be televised on ESPN.

Tennessee at 8-4 will be making their 4th appearance in the history of the bowl, while Illinois is making their first. 

Tennessee fell in overtime to North Carolina in 2010. The Vols beat Nebraska in 2016 and in Josh Heupel’s first season Tennessee lost to Purdue in overtime 48-45. 

The bowl match up will be the first ever meeting between the Vols and the Fighting Illini. 

The Vols are 8-4 coming off a disappointing November finish with a lost to Oklahoma which took Tennessee out of the playoff hunt and a 45-24 loss to Vanderbilt where the Commodores dominated the second half. Tennessee head coach Josh Heupel said the post season is about finishing things the right way with a big eye towards the future. 

“This is an opportunity to finish this football season out sending our seniors out the right way but also having an opportunity to push forward to next year,” 

For Illinois the 2025 season has been one of great disappointment. The Illini were picked as high as 4th in some pre-season Big 10 predicted orders of finish coming off a 10 win season in 2025. Bret Bielema’s team returned the bulk of their offense including Luke Altmyer at quarterback.

After a 3-0 start, Illinois when 5-4 the rest of the way with a 63-10 loss to Indiana and a late season loss at Wisconsin. Illinois went 1-3 on the road this season.

The game will mark Tennessee’s 57 bowl game appearance and the Vols have 30 bowl game victories. Under Heupel Tennessee is 2-2 in post season play as Tennessee has played in a post-season game in every season of the Heupel era. Last year, the Vols made their first ever appearance in the College Football Playoff falling 42-17 to eventual national champion Ohio State.