Location announced for Tennessee Football's game against Georgia Tech next season

Tennessee Football’s game against Georgia Tech next season will be played at Bobby Dodd Stadium, new Georgia Tech athletic director Ryan Alpert announced on social media on Friday. Tech used a survey of season-ticket holders to help decide if the game would be played on Tech’s home field or at Mercedes-Benz Stadium.

“All 7 home games — including premium non-conference matchups vs Colorado and Tennessee — will be played at Bobby Dodd Stadium at Hyundai Field in 2026,” Alpert said.

Tennessee leads the all-time series with Georgia Tech 25-17-2, dating back to 1902. Tennessee’s season-opening win over Tech in 2017 was the first meeting between the two teams since 1987. The Vols haven’t played at Bobby Dodd Stadium since 1986.

Alpert was hired away by Georgia Tech in July after working as Tennessee’s senior deputy athletics director and chief revenue officer the last four years. 

He wrote in a letter to season-ticket holders in September asking for participation in a three-question survey regarding the site for Georgia Tech’s game against the Vols next September, either at Mercedes-Benz Stadium, the home of the Atlanta Falcons, or on the Tech campus at Bobby Dodd Stadium. 

Tennessee to play at Georgia Tech on September 12, 2026

Tennessee opened the season with a 45-26 win over Syracuse in the Aflac Kickoff Game at Mercedes-Benz Stadium on August 31. The Vols beat Georgia Tech 42-41 in two overtimes at Mercedes-Benz Stadium in the 2017 season opener.

Tennessee has non-conference opponents from power conferences scheduled through the 2030 season. After the Georgia Tech home-and-home in 2026 and 2027, the Vols will play West Virginia in a neutral-site game at Bank Of America Stadium in Charlotte in 2028 and will start a home-and-home with Washington in 2029, with the Vols going to Seattle in 2030.

Next season’s Tennessee-Georgia Tech game will be held on September 12, 2026. Tech will make the return trip to Tennessee on September 11, 2027. The Vols added the home-and-home with the Yellow Jackets after Nebraska cancelled a previously scheduled home-and-home with Tennessee. 

Playing Vols at Mercedes-Benz Stadium would ‘provide significant revenue lift’ for Tech

“In listening to many of you over the past few months,” Alpert wrote in September, “one of the things that I’ve learned is that playing our biggest football games at Bobby Dodd Stadium at Hyundai Field is important to many of our most loyal and valued fans. As we look ahead to the 2026 football season, we have the opportunity to play our home game versus Tennessee at Mercedes-Benz Stadium. Similar to the benefit of playing this year’s home game against Georgia at Mercedes-Benz Stadium, playing Tennessee at Mercedes-Benz Stadium would provide us with a significant revenue lift. As you know, driving new revenue is critically important to the success of our teams in this new era of college athletics.

“However,” Halpert added, “knowing how important the history, tradition and emotion of playing big games at Bobby Dodd Stadium at Hyundai Field is to our fan base, we have developed a season-ticket pricing proposal that would allow us to play next year’s Tennessee game at Bobby Dodd Stadium at Hyundai Field, while still providing us with significant revenue to allow us to continue to build on our momentum. However, the revenue benefit would not match what we would receive if the game was played at Mercedes-Benz Stadium.”