From the University of Tennessee webpage -
http://admissions.utk.edu/undergradu...irements.shtml
» How competitive is our admissions process?
The middle 50 percent of the fall 2010 admitted class had score ranges of 1110 – 1300 (SAT CR + M) or 24-29 ACT and a core high school GPA range of 3.42-4.0.
One should consider that this is probably also reflective of the going through recruitment. Thus, someone with a 3.0 GPA entering UT would be well within the lower 25% of the incoming class.
Perhaps if they had a serious health issue in high school or were coming from a foreign country they would have some circumstances that would account for a lower GPA but they would need to be sure to tell people that.