KNOXVILLE, Tenn. — Did you hear the news, Vol Nation? The University of Tennessee is now officially the one true "UT" in the Southeastern Conference!
There can only be one UT in the SEC to avoid confusion with shorthand names now that Texas is, and as it turned out Friday: conference seniority rules.
The SEC released the Preseason Media Poll on Friday, and Vol fans were quick to pick up on the shorthand team names listed next to players who made it to the 2024 Preseason All-SEC football team.
Next to Tennessee's Cooper Mays: "UT." Texas' Kelvin Banks Jr. revealed the shorthand the Longhorns received in the SEC: "TEX."
The debate over the real UT is officially settled as far as the SEC is concerned. Sorry, Texas. Perhaps you need to take a page from Tennessee's "Everywhere you look, UT" mural campaign.
Now, for the search engine optimization nerds out there, we have to wait and see if this decision will impact Google searches to seal the status. Searching "UT" without any location data attached brings up mixed results on the major search engines. Sometimes it's Tennessee at the top, and sometimes it's Texas. Searching with location data turned on usually brings up the school nearest your location, although anecdotally it feels like Texas used to show up at the top more when searching "UT" in the recent past. We can't say for sure, but perhaps a recent national championship helped boost Tennessee's SEO?
As for the actual preseason poll... Tennessee ended up in the middle of the pack and Texas was predicted to be number two in the upcoming season. Georgia remained heavily favored to come out on the top of the SEC next season.
