LSU visits Tennessee on Saturday in a rare matchup between the programs

Tennessee is trending down. LSU is trending up. And that’s the same general recent pattern in the teams’ rarely played matchups.

Of the original SEC schools, few have met each other with less frequency than the Tigers and Vols, who have played only 32 times over the years. In fact, they’ve faced off only eight times in the past 23 years and haven’t played at all since the conference expanded to 14 teams in 2012.

They meet Saturday night in Knoxville with LSU (7-3) looking to solidify a spot in a “good” bowl while UT (4-6) must win to have a shot at bowl eligibility. Betting odds for the LSU-Tennessee game have the Tigers as a 16-point favorite.

Tennessee leads 20-9-3 in the series, which began…