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SEC top 10 for Week 11: Tennessee carrying championship credential

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2 years ago

November 8, 2024

SEC top 10 for Week 11: Tennessee carrying championship credential

SEC teams will play carrying CFP rankings for the first time this season on Saturday, and two of the six league games for Week 11 will match ranked teams. No. 3 Georgia visits No. 16 Ole Miss, and No. 11 Alabama visits No. 15 LSU. Twelve teams will qualify for the CFP field this season. Here are 10 stats from SEC Football by the Numbers, along with the schedule, TV and betting lines, to get ready for Week 11:

4 Consecutive Alabama coaches have lost their first game against LSU. Kalen DeBoer will be in his first LSU game as the Crimson Tide’s coach on Saturday. The most recent Alabama coach to win in his first meeting with LSU was Gene Stallings, who guided the Tide to a 24-3 victory over the Tigers on Nov. 10, 1990. Since then, LSU defeated Mike DuBose 27-0 on Nov. 8, 1997, Dennis Franchione 35-21 on Nov. 3, 2001, Mike Shula 27-3 on Nov. 15, 2003, and Nick Saban 41-34 on Nov. 3, 2007. All those games were in Tuscaloosa. The two Alabama coaches who took the Tide to Baton Rouge in their first seasons during the SEC era won – Ray Perkins 32-26 on Nov. 5, 1983, and Bill Curry 22-10 on Nov. 7, 1987.

5 SEC teams have held their first eight opponents to fewer than 20 points in a season this century, with Tennessee joining the list in 2024. The other teams – LSU in 2003, Alabama in 2011 and 2012 and Georgia in 2021 – went on to win the national-championship game. Georgia didn’t allow its first 12 opponents to reach 20 points in 2021, LSU didn’t allow its first 11 opponents to reach 20 points in 2003 and Alabama didn’t allow its first 10 opponents to reach 20 points in 2011 or first nine in 2012. This is the first season in which the Volunteers have held their first eight opponents to fewer than 20 points apiece since 1966, when Tennessee did so in all 11 of its games. The Vols have kept their past nine opponents from reaching 20 points, including their 35-0 shutout of Iowa in the Citrus Bowl to cap the 2023 season. It’s the longest stretch of games without any of Tennessee’s opponents reaching 20 points since doing so in the final nine games of the 1985 season. Tennessee’s Saturday opponent, Mississippi State, has averaged scoring 29.1 points per game this season and has been held to fewer than 20 points twice in nine games.

13 Victories without a loss for LSU in Saturday night games at Tiger Stadium under coach Brian Kelly. The Tigers also won their final two night home games before Kelly came aboard, so the winning streak is at 15 in a row at night at Tiger Stadium since a 16-13 overtime setback against Arkansas on Nov. 20, 2021. The wins include a 32-31 overtime victory against Alabama in 2022. Overall, LSU has a 14-game home winning streak that dates from a 40-13 loss to Tennessee on Oct. 8, 2022. That game is LSU’s only home loss in 18 games under Kelly. LSU hosts Alabama on Saturday night.

15 Consecutive victories for South Carolina against Vanderbilt entering their meeting on Saturday. The Commodores most recently defeated the Gamecocks 24-17 on Sept. 4, 2008. South Carolina leads the series 29-4. At No. 24 in this week’s Associated Press Poll, Vanderbilt is playing South Carolina as a ranked team for the first time. The Commodores’ most recently won a game while ranked in the AP Poll on Oct. 4, 2008, when No. 19 Vanderbilt defeated Auburn 14-13. The Commodores have played three games as a ranked team since then.

17 Consecutive victories have been tallied by Georgia in the game after its annual contest against Florida in Jacksonville, Florida. Georgia defeated Florida 34-20 last week and plays Ole Miss on Saturday. Since Kentucky beat the Bulldogs 24-20 after the Florida game in 2006, Georgia has defeated Kentucky five times, Missouri three, Mississippi State, Ole Miss, South Carolina and Tennessee once apiece in SEC games and also beaten five non-conference opponents on the Saturday after playing the Gators.

SEC TOP 10 FROM WEEK 10

20 Rushing yards are needed for Tennessee RB Dylan Sampson to become the first SEC player to reach 1,000 for the 2024 season. Sampson enters Saturday’s game against Ole Miss with 980 yards and 19 TDs on 171 rushing attempts. There have been 19 1,000-yard rushing seasons recorded by Tennessee players, with Johnnie Jones in 1983 and 1984 as the Volunteers’ only two-time 1,000-yard rusher. Sampson’s TD total for this season is a school record, and he’s run for at least one TD in every game this season. The Ole Miss defense has yielded four rushing TDs this season, tied with Tennessee for the fewest in the SEC.

25 Victories and seven losses for Missouri coach Eliah Drinkwitz on Faurot Field at Memorial Stadium entering Oklahoma’s visit on Saturday. Drinkwitz’s .781 home winning percentage is the best of any Missouri coach with at least four seasons with the Tigers. Missouri is 5-0 at home this season with two games left at Memorial Stadium on the 2024 schedule. The Tigers haven’t completed a season without a home loss since they went 6-0 in Columbia in 2007. Missouri has won eight consecutive home games since a 49-39 loss to LSU on Oct. 7, 2023.

36 Yards of total offense are needed by Ole Miss QB Jaxson Dart in Saturday’s game against Georgia to reach the top 10 on the SEC’s career list. With 562 yards of total offense in last week’s 63-31 victory over Arkansas, Dart passed Bo Wallace as Ole Miss’ career leader with 10,805 yards of total offense – 9,548 passing yards and 1,257 rushing yards. Georgia QB Eric Zeier (1991-94) ranks 10th in SEC history with 10,841 yards of total offense (11,153 passing yards and minus-312 rushing yards). The SEC career leader in yards of total offense is Georgia QB Aaron Murray (2010-13), who had 13,562 yards (13,166 passing and 396 rushing).

100 Years since the first Florida-Texas game and the Longhorns’ first game at what is now Darrel K. Royal-Texas Memorial Stadium. On Oct. 25, 1924, Texas and Florida tied 7-7 in the Longhorns’ final game at Clark Field. In its next home game, Texas lost to Baylor 28-10 at Texas Memorial Stadium on Nov. 8, 1924, in a Southwest Conference game attended by 13,500 fans. The Longhorns and Gators played in Austin again on Sept. 30, 1939, with Texas taking a 12-0 victory. Saturday’s game will be the programs’ first meeting since Dec. 7, 1940, when the Longhorns defeated the Gators 26-0 in Gainesville.

1,300 Games in South Carolina history when the Gamecocks take the field against Vanderbilt on Saturday. South Carolina has a 639-616-44 record. The Gamecocks’ 1,300th game could be doubly notable for South Carolina with a victory over Vanderbilt. The Gamecocks have road victories over Kentucky and Oklahoma in 2024 and have not won three SEC games on the road in the same season since 2013, when South Carolina defeated Georgia, Mississippi State and Tennessee away from home.

FOR MORE OF AL.COM’S COVERAGE OF THE SEC, GO TO OUR SEC PAGE

This week’s SEC schedule includes (all times are CDT with point spreads from BetMGM):

Saturday

Florida (4-4, 2-3) at No. 5 Texas (7-1, 3-1), 11 a.m. at Darrel K. Royal-Texas Memorial Stadium in Austin, Texas (ABC). Line: Texas by 21.5
No. 3 Georgia (7-1, 5-1) at No. 16 Ole Miss (7-2, 3-2), 2:30 p.m. at Vaught-Hemingway Stadium in Oxford, Mississippi (ABC). Line: Georgia by 2.5
South Carolina (5-3, 3-3) at Vanderbilt (6-3, 3-2), 3:15 p.m. at FirstBank Stadium in Nashville, Tennessee (SEC Network). Line: South Carolina by 6.5
Mississippi State (2-7, 0-5) at No. 7 Tennessee (7-1, 4-1), 6 p.m. at Neyland Stadium in Knoxville, Tennessee (ESPN). Line: Tennessee by 24.5
No. 11 Alabama (6-2, 3-2) at No. 15 LSU (6-2, 3-1), 6:30 p.m. at Tiger Stadium in Baton Rouge, Louisiana (ABC). Line: Alabama by 3
Oklahoma (5-4, 1-4) at No. 24 Missouri (6-2, 2-2), 6:45 p.m. at Memorial Stadium in Columbia, Missouri (SEC Network). Line: Oklahoma by 2.5

Mark Inabinett is a sports reporter for Alabama Media Group. Follow him on Twitter at @AMarkG1.

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Memphis voters file federal lawsuit against new congressional map, claiming discrimination: ‘White control over Tennessee politics’

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10 hours ago

May 12, 2026

Press Room

Memphis voters file federal lawsuit against new congressional map, claiming discrimination: ‘White control over Tennessee politics’

MEMPHIS, Tenn. (WSMV) – Three Memphis voters, through the American Civil Liberties Union, have filed a federal lawsuit against Tennessee leaders, claiming the state’s new congressional maps are discriminating against Black voters.

The ACLU announced the lawsuit on Monday, saying that three organizations — the Black Clergy Collaborative of Memphis, the Memphis A. Philip Randolph Institute and the Equity Alliance, are also part of the lawsuit that was filed against Sec. of State Tre Hargett, Coordinator of Elections Mark Goins and several others.

“In May 2026, over the course of mere days, a White-dominated supermajority of the Tennessee General Assembly redrew Tennessee’s congressional map to crack the predominantly Black city of Memphis into three pieces and destroy the only district in which Black voters are able to elect representatives of their choice, shutting Black voters completely out of power in federal elections in Tennessee,” the filing states.

The ACLU and the other plaintiffs echo arguments made by Democrats while the maps were being debated during last week’s special session: “The cracking of Memphis unlawfully targeted Black voters.”

“The new plan carves through the center of Tennessee’s second largest city, dividing neighborhoods that have voted together for decades, splitting numerous counties and precincts, and cutting the Black population into thirds with suspect precision,” the lawsuit says. “The districts then run hundreds of miles east towards the Nashville suburbs, snaking through predominantly White and rural counties to dilute the voting power of now-divided Black Memphians.”

Gov. Bill Lee signed the new congressional map into law last week. The new map splits Shelby County, home of Memphis, into three districts.

Republicans have said the map modernizes the districting process and removes “racial data from the mapmaking process entirely.” Democrats, on the other hand, say that the move is meant to dismantle the Black-majority district.

Tennessee Speaker of the House Cameron Sexton (R) told WSMV that Republicans “have been very clear” on their intention to secure a ninth Republican seat in the state. He has said the map would help “ensure the state’s representation in Washington reflects its conservative values.”

The lawsuit draws significant attention to the racial makeup of Tennessee lawmakers, describing, “White control over Tennessee politics.” Plaintiffs allege that a white majority “faction” of state leaders “gave bizarre, robotic answers to the most basic questions about the map they were sponsoring.”

“None of the sponsors of the plan would admit who actually drew it, and the lead Senate sponsor—a White legislator with over a decade of service in the Tennessee General Assembly who had attended law school in Memphis — would not say whether Memphis was predominantly Black and claimed not to know that Congressional District 9 was a majority- Black district,” the filing says.

They seem to be referencing Sen. John Stevens (R-Huntingdon), who was asked during the special session if he was aware that the majority of the residents in the ninth district are Black.

“I’m not aware,” he responded. “I know how the map is divided, but I don’t know the racial makeup of the map.”

Stevens got his juris doctorate from the University of Memphis Cecil C. Humphreys School of Law.

The three Memphis residents who took part in the lawsuit are Amber Sherman, a lifelong resident of Memphis and the lead Tennessee regional organizer for Black Voters Matter Fund, Rachael Spriggs, a Memphis resident for more than 20 years who is the director of Power Building for the Equity Alliance, and Kermit Moore, a nearly lifelong resident of Memphis who is the president of the Memphis A. Philip Randolph Institute.

The lawsuit claims intentional discrimination in violation of the 14th and 15th Amendments, as well as retaliation for protected expression and association in violation of the First Amendment.

Plaintiffs are asking the court to declare that the newly drawn map is unconstitutional and restore district lines before primary elections proceed.

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New Tennessee law allows K9 officers to be transported by helicopter, ambulance to vet

Published

22 hours ago

May 11, 2026

Press Room

New Tennessee law allows K9 officers to be transported by helicopter, ambulance to vet

Tennessee State Senators Michele Reneau of Signal Mountain and Bo Watson of Hixson spoke today about the new law supporting police K-9’s.

The act allows injured dogs to get stabilization services on-site and then be transported via ambulance or helicopter to a vet hospital.

“In the past, officers were basically putting the k9 in their car and transporting them in their in their own vehicle, they didn’t have an ambulance or an air ambulance,” said Senator Watson. “This allows for an air ambulance. It also allows for a educational program for those in EMS, who will be taught how to manage canines emergency medical condition, which is different than a human’s.”

In April, Erlanger flew a K9 officer from Clay County, to North Carolina.

It was the first time the program was used for a live transport after several training runs.

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What You Need to Know About Tennessee Softball’s Path to Another WCWS | Rocky Top Insider

Published

1 day ago

May 11, 2026

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What You Need to Know About Tennessee Softball’s Path to Another WCWS | Rocky Top Insider

Tennessee softball’s path back to the Women’s College World Series is set. On Sunday night, the Lady Vols were named the No. 7 overall seed in the 2026 NCAA Tournament and will host the regional stage in Knoxville as it looks to return to the WCWS in back-to-back seasons.

The Lady Vols are matched up with Virginia, Indiana and Northern Kentucky in the regionals. It would play Georgia, Clemson, UNC Greensboro or Charleston in the super regionals.

Ahead of the tournament, here’s a look at each team in the Knoxville Regional and potential matchups for the ensuing best-of-three super regional if Tennessee advances.