Tennessee has won the SEC thirteen times, third in conference history behind Alabama and Georgia, and sixteen conference championships in all counting one from the SIAA and two from the Southern Conference. The most recent came in 1998 with the national title. The 27 years since are the longest gap in the program’s history, and the longest current drought among the SEC’s founding powers.
Every SEC Title by Coach
| Coach | Titles | Seasons |
|---|---|---|
| Robert Neyland | 5 | 1938, 1939, 1940, 1946, 1951 |
| Johnny Majors | 3 | 1985, 1989, 1990 |
| Doug Dickey | 2 | 1967, 1969 |
| Phillip Fulmer | 2 | 1997, 1998 |
| Bowden Wyatt | 1 | 1956 |
Tennessee also won the SIAA in 1914 and the Southern Conference in 1927 and 1932, the latter under Neyland in the year before the SEC’s first season.
Neyland’s Five
Robert Neyland won the SEC three years running from 1938 to 1940 with teams that went 31 and 2 across the three regular seasons and did not allow a point in two of them. He won it again in 1946 on his return from the war and in 1951 with the national champions. Add the 1932 Southern Conference title and he won six conference championships in 21 seasons at the program, interrupted twice by military service.
1997 and 1998: Back to Back in Atlanta
Phillip Fulmer’s teams won consecutive SEC championship games, 30 to 29 over Auburn with Peyton Manning in 1997 and 24 to 14 over Mississippi State with Tee Martin in 1998. The second came on the way to the national championship. Tennessee has played in the SEC championship game five times, winning those two and losing in 2001, 2004 and 2007. The 2001 loss to LSU, 31 to 20, cost a place in the BCS title game.
The Drought Since 1998
Tennessee has not won the SEC in 27 seasons, the longest gap in program history and the longest among the conference’s founding members that have won it at all. The Volunteers reached the championship game three times after 1998 and lost each one, and did not return between 2007 and the present. Josh Heupel’s 2022 and 2024 teams finished in the top ten and reached the playoff in 2024 without playing in Atlanta. Our Tennessee vs Alabama page covers the rivalry that has decided most of the ones it did win.
Where Tennessee Ranks
Alabama has 30 SEC titles, Georgia 16, Tennessee 13, LSU 12. Tennessee held second place on the list for decades until Georgia passed it in 2022. Our page on most conference championships has the national picture.
The Bottom Line
Tennessee has won 13 SEC championships and 16 conference titles in total. Robert Neyland won five, Johnny Majors three, and Phillip Fulmer the last two in 1997 and 1998. The 27 years since are the longest the program has gone without one. Our national championships page covers the six titles the conference crowns helped produce.