Why Are the Vols So Consistently Overrated?

Could a local media thinking themselves more as an extension of the public relations department than journalists be a contributing factor?

Earlier this month Barrett Sallie wrote a piece that the Tennessee Volunteers are consistently the most overrated team in the Southeastern Conference.

Gee, imagine that!

Sallie uses the criteria of preseason predictions coming out of SEC Media Days for the past seven years. The Vols have been the most underachieving team in the conference based on preseason predictions, followed by South Carolina and Arkansas.

It’s easy to figure out why. Remember 2016? The Vols were going to be back! They were going to win the SEC East!

They finished 9–4 and had eight players drafted in to the NFL the following spring. SEC East Champion Florida had 10.

The next year the Vols were a preseason Top-25 team based on their name alone. They went 4–8.

One could say similar things about Carolina, which was picked to win the SEC East in 2014 and then promptly fell to Texas A & M 52–28 en route to a 7–6 record. The Gamecocks have been a mediocre football program ever since.

Still, the one thing the Gamecocks don’t have is a media that will tell their audience the program is still elite when it is not.

At SEC media days, South Carolina head coach Will Muschamp was asked if his team is “Little Brother” to traditional rival…