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2023 Top Tennessee Men's D1 (FBS) Football Schools

4 Colleges
$33,639 Avg Tuition & Fees*
48% Avg 4-Year Grad Rate*

Student athletes have lots of options to chooose from today when trying to decide which college to attend. College Factual has developed its Best Colleges for Division I (FBS) Men's Football in Tennessee ranking as one item you can use to help make this decision.

We analyzed 4 colleges and universities across Tennessee to determine which were the best for D1 (FBS) Men's Football athletes in Tennessee. Our ranking is based on several objective factors, including the school's overall quality and the athletic competitiveness of the school. We steer clear of subjective measures since they don't give a clear picture when determining how one school compares to another. So, even if a school has a great team, it won't place well if it is also considered a low quality college or university.

Find out more about our ranking methodology.

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Since one ranking on its own is not enough to give you a complete understanding of your educational options, you can refine this list by location. We've also developed a number of other tools and rankings based on other factors. These other rankings highlight colleges that excel in other factors such as value or diversity as well as schools that excel in serving different groups of students such as online students or returnings adults.

We've created a tool called College Combat that lets you create your own customized comparisons based on the factors that matter the most to you. We encourage you to try it out and pit your favorite colleges and universities head to head! If you don't have time right now, you can bookmark it for later.

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Top Colleges in Tennessee for D1 (FBS) Men's Football athletes in Tennessee

See which schools came out on top of our ranking:

1
Vanderbilt crest
Vanderbilt University
Nashville, Tennessee

Our 2023 rankings named Vanderbilt University the best school for D1 (FBS) Men’s Football athletes in Tennessee working on their bachelor’s degree. Nashville, Tennessee is the setting for this fairly large institution of higher learning. The private not-for-profit school handed out bachelor’s degrees to 2,440 students in . On the financial side of things, the FBS Men’s Football team at Vanderbilt made $33,582,944 in revenue. The team has a great academic progress rate of 984, signifying that team members care about their grades. With a freshman retention rate of 97%, the school does an excellent job of retaining its students. Vanderbilt also took the #1 spot in our overall quality rankings. Full Vanderbilt University Sports Report

2

Out of the 4 schools in Tennessee that were part of this year’s ranking, The University of Tennessee - Knoxville landed the #2 spot on the list. The University of Tennessee - Knoxville is a large public school located in Knoxville, Tennessee that handed out 5,533 bachelor’s degrees in . The team at UT Knoxville took home $100,982,596 in revenue and paid out $39,755,021 in expenses in recent times. Thus, the team actually made $61,227,575, which isn’t bad at all. The team has a respectable academic progress rate of 967. With a freshman retention rate of 88%, the school does an excellent job of retaining its students. UT Knoxville also took the #4 spot in our overall quality rankings. Full The University of Tennessee - Knoxville Sports Report

3
UofM crest
University of Memphis
Memphis, Tennessee

You’ll be in good company if you decide to attend University of Memphis. It ranked #3 on our 2023 Best Colleges for D1 (FBS) Men’s Football athletes in Tennessee list. Memphis, Tennessee is the setting for this large institution of higher learning. The public school handed out bachelor’s degrees to 3,132 students in . Speaking financially, the FBS Men’s Football team at UofM took home $17,086,532 in revenue. The team members aren’t slouches in the classroom either, since the team academic progress rate is an excellent 980. Read full sports report on University of Memphis

4
Middle Tennessee State University crest
Middle Tennessee State University
Murfreesboro, Tennessee

You’ll join some of the best athletes around if you attend Middle Tennessee State University. The school came in at #4 in this year’s ranking. Located in Murfreesboro, Tennessee, the large public school awarded 3,709 diplomas to qualified bachelor’s degree students in . The FBS Men’s Football team at Middle Tennessee State University brought home $10,633,592 in revenue in a single year. The team has a great academic progress rate of 985, signifying that team members care about their grades. Read full sports report on Middle Tennessee State University

View Best Colleges for FBS Men’s Football in the Southeast Region >

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Notes and References

Footnotes

*Avg Tuition and Fees and Avg 4-Year Grad Rate are for the top 4 schools only.

References

More about our data sources and methodologies.

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