Donald Trump will attend Texas-Tennessee showdown to watch Arch Manning in historic first regular-season meeting

It is no secret that President Donald Trump likes to show up at the biggest sports stages. He was at Super Bowl 59 between the Kansas City Chiefs and Philadelphia Eagles and at Game 3 of this year’s NBA Finals in New York, both firsts for a sitting president at those events.

Now the White House has confirmed he will be in Knoxville on Saturday for No. 14 Tennessee against No. 1 Texas , a report first floated by Clay Travis. It will be Trump’s first college football game since last winter’s national championship, when Indiana beat Miami. Kickoff is noon ET on ABC.

Both teams are 3-0. The Longhorns are 3-0 after knocking off Ohio State, and Arch Manning will play his first true road game of the year in front of more than 100,000 fans at Neyland Stadium.

First Regular-Season Meeting Draws GameDay and a Sold-Out Neyland

This is the first regular-season meeting between the Longhorns and Volunteers . They have only played three times before, all in the Cotton Bowl: Tennessee won in 1951 , Texas in 1953 and 1969 . The building is sold out for Tennessee’s 30th straight sellout.

Capacity is 101,915, and Texas coach Steve Sarkisian already called Neyland “the loudest stadium in the country.”

On the field it is the game of the weekend, even with six AP-ranked matchups on the same day for the first time since 2023.

ESPN’s College GameDay , with Pat McAfee and the rest of the crew, will be on campus, and there is talk Trump could appear as a guest picker, which would be a first for a U.S. president on the show.

Peyton Manning is also expected to be in Knoxville to watch his nephew play against his alma mater. Saturday will tell how Arch and Texas handle a hostile road opener with the president watching from a heavily secured box.