Tennessee vs. Virginia

Tennessee and Virginia have 5 meetings on file, the first in 1927; Tennessee leads the series 4–⁠1 in the games on file. Over the last 5 meetings it’s Tennessee 4–⁠1, and Tennessee has won the last 2.

Tennessee wins
4
Virginia wins
1
Ties
0
Earliest on file
1927
Longest streak
2 Tennessee
Current streak
2 Tennessee
Last 10 meetings
Tennessee 4–⁠1
Most recent
2023

The series at a glance

Every meeting by decade, colored by the winner
’0’1’2’3’4’5’6’7’8’9W–L
1920s1–⁠0
1940s1–⁠0
1980s0–⁠1
1990s1–⁠0
2020s1–⁠0
Average margin
21.8 points; 2 decided by one score (8 or fewer)
At Tennessee
2–⁠1 Tennessee’s record at home
Neutral sites
2–⁠0 Tennessee first
Shutouts
1

Every meeting on file, as played. Ranks are the AP poll’s going in.

Games that tell the story

  1. Tennessee’s biggest win1927: Tennessee 42, Virginia 0by 42 points
  2. Virginia’s biggest win1980: Virginia 16, Tennessee 13by 3 points
  3. Upset1980: Virginia 16, Tennessee 13Virginia had a 28% chance, by our ratings before kickoff

Both programs through the years

End-of-season Elo ratings of Tennessee and Virginia, 1927 on13001500170019401960198020002020

Our Elo rating at the end of each season, a measure of how strong a team was, not a forecast; 1500 is an average FBS team.

Stars of the series

Named most valuable

Andy Kelly Tennessee1990

Most valuable: as the games’ Wikipedia articles name them (CC BY-SA).

From the newspapers

  • The Evening star's story of the 1927 game: vIRGiNlAI S ROUTED BY TENNESSEE, 42-0

    1927 · Evening star, Oct 30, 1927

  • The Evening star's story of the 1940 game: Powerful Tennessee Crushes Gallant Virginia, ALA Cavaliers Touchdowns First Against Vols At Home Since '38

    1940 · Evening star, Nov 17, 1940

Public-domain newspapers from the Library of Congress’s Chronicling America, found through the American Stories dataset (Dell and Harvard, CC BY 4.0). The earliest meetings with a story on file; each game’s page has the full text.

Every game

Sep 2, 202312Tennessee 49, Virginia 13Nissan Stadium
Jan 1, 199110Tennessee 23, Virginia 22Neutral siteSugar Bowl
Nov 1, 1980Virginia 16, Tennessee 13at Tennessee
Nov 16, 19405Tennessee 41, Virginia 14at Tennessee
Oct 29, 1927Tennessee 42, Virginia 0at Tennessee

Every game is listed as played on the field.