Tennessee has never gained anything from playing Memphis and its still that way today. No matter how good (or perceived "good") they are theres just no strategic positives for the Vols. If there were any, trust me the Vols would play them every year.
Well, to be fair, with the new scheduling arrangement, we can’t really even consider putting Memphis on the schedule. Playing one P5 non conference opponent means we either play a home and home or a neutral game. That means we lose a home game some years and have to play “buy” games for other three non conference games. Memphis would want us to play in Memphis as part of an agreement, and that becomes difficult. Tennessee wants 7 or 8 home games a year for revenue. I guess it could be worked out some how, but it’s made a series with Memphis much more difficult.