Rice Owls vs Tennessee Volunteers Prediction, Odds and Picks for Today, 11/17/25

The Rice Owls travel to Rocky Top to face the Tennessee Volunteers on Monday night. Rice is 2-2 on the year and is coming off a win vs East Texas A&M. The Vols are unbeaten thus far and are ranked in the top 20, but they have also really eased into the season so far, just pushing around mid-majors in the season’s first couple of weeks. Rick Barnes has some talent in Knoxville once again, and while I think they are a tick behind the likes of Alabama, Florida, and Kentucky, this is still a good team. In this matchup, I think the Vols win comfortably, but maybe this number is too big. I’ll take the points with Rice.

Working in Rice’s favor is the fact that they have a ton of program continuity. On the other hand, is it a plus to bring back most of the roster if that team was bad last year? That’s the Rice issue. But they did just hang around in a game with Oregon, so staying withing 25 of the Vols is doable. Tennessee and Rice both play at a very slow pace, among the slowest in the nation so far, and that tends to suppress scoring. With the way the Vols play defense and slow the tempo, if they are up by double digits, it feels like the game is over. Tennessee can absolutely control this game while failing to cover, and that is what I am expecting. This will be a slow game that Rice can cover.

Rice vs Tennessee Prediction: Rice +26.5 (-110) available at the time of publishing. Playable at that number.

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