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How To Watch: Tennessee vs. Illinois in the Music City Bowl

IMG_3593by: Grant Ramey6 hours agoGrantRamey

Tennessee Football will face Illinois in the Music City Bowl on Tuesday, December 30 at Nissan Stadium in Nashville. Kickoff is scheduled for 5:30 p.m. Eastern Time and the game will air on ESPN.

Bowl game matchups were announced on Sunday afternoon after the 12-team College Football Playoff bracket was set. On3’s Brett McMurphy first reported the Tennessee-Illinois matchup.

Both Tennessee and Illinois went 8-4 this season.

How To Watch: Tennessee vs. Illinois

When: Tuesday, December 30, 5:30 p.m. Eastern Time

Where: Nissan Stadium

TV: ESPN | Streaming: ESPN App

Radio: WNML 99.1 FM in Knoxville. The Vol Network radio broadcast can be heard on local affiliates across the state of Tennessee.

Satellite Radio: SiriusXM, SXM App

Tennessee and Illinois have never met in football, but the Vols have made three appearances in the Music City Bowl. Tennessee lost to North Carolina 30-27 in the Music City Bowl in December 2010, beat Nebraska 38-25 in December 2016 and lost to Purdue 48-45 in December 2021 to cap the first season under head coach Josh Heupel.

Illinois went 8-4 during the regular season, losing 63-10 at Illinois, 34-16 at home against Ohio State, 42-25 at Washington and 27-10 at Wisconsin. The Illini beat Western Illinois, Duke, Western Michigan, USC, Purdue, Rutgers, Maryland and Northwestern.

SEC College Football Playoff, bowl games

Alabama will play at Oklahoma in the first round of the playoff on December 19 (8 p.m. ET, ESPN), Texas A&M will host Miami on December 20 (Noon ET, ESPN/ABC), then Ole Miss will face Tulane (3:30 p.m. ET, TNT).

Georgia will get the winner between Tulane and Ole Miss in the Sugar Bowl on January 1. 

Vanderbilt is playing in the ReliaQuest Bowl in Tampa and Texas is facing Michigan in the Citrus Bowl in Orlando.

Missouri is playing in the Gator Bowl, LSU is playing win the Texas Bowl and Mississippi State is playing in the Mayo Bowl.

The SEC Bowl Season Schedule

The Gator Bowl is set for Saturday, December 27. Kickoff is 7:30 p.m. Eastern Time at EverBank Stadium in Jacksonville. The Texas Bowl is also December 27, kicking off at 9:15 p.m. ET at NRG Stadium in Houston.

The Music City Bowl is Tuesday, December 30 and is a 5:30 p.m. ET start at Nissan Stadium.

The Citrus Bowl and ReliaQuest Bowl are both set for New Year’s Eve. The ReliaQuest Bowlis a Noon ET start at Raymond James Stadium in Tampa on Wednesday, December 31, while the Citrus Bowl is a 3 p.m. ET start at Camping World Stadium in Tampa.

The Liberty Bowl will be played Friday, January 2 and is a 4:30 p.m. ET start at Liberty Stadium in Memphis. The Mayo Bowl is also set for January 2 in an 8 p.m. ET kickoff at Bank of America Stadium in Charlotte. 

The Gasparilla Bowl will be played on December 19 in Tampa, scheduled for a 2:30 p.m. ET kickoff. The Birmingham Bowl is Monday, December 29, a 2 p.m. ET start at Protective Stadium.