Tennessee Football lands at No. 11 in the third edition of the college football playoffs rankings on Tuesday, as revealed in the ESPN Reveal Show.
The Vols dropped four spots in the rankings after a 31-17 loss to Georgia last weekend in Athens.
The Vols’ No. 11 ranking would put the Vols as the first team out in the projected playoff bracket. Despite being at No. 11, Tennessee fell out of the bracket due to No. 12 Boise State and No. 13 BYU jumping into the playoff picture as the first-place team in the Mountain West conference and the first-place team from the Big 12, respectively.
Let’s get to what Tennessee fans want to know.
Fears came true for Vol Nation on Tuesday night as Tennessee officially sits behind four SEC teams: No. 3 Texas, No. 7 Alabama, No. 9 Ole Miss, and No. 10 Georgia.
That means that the committee sees Tennessee behind its three conference foes (Alabama, Ole Miss, Georgia) with each having the same record at 9-2 on the season. The committee showed on Tuesday night that without a loss from the other two-loss SEC teams this season, the Vols will likely need to rely on a non-conference team falling in the final two weeks of the regular season.
Tennessee was widely projected to miss the playoff picture here on Tuesday night but that doesn’t mean the door is shut.
The UPDATED College Football Playoff Top 25 rankings‼️ pic.twitter.com/TR54lloq8V
— ESPN (@espn) November 20, 2024
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The Vols were previously ranked at No. 7 but were jumped by Georgia, Ole Miss, Alabama, Notre Dame, and Miami on Tuesday night. BYU, who was ranked one spot ahead of Tennessee last week, also tumbled in the rankings, landing at No. 13.
Regardless of what happens around the college football landscape, Tennessee has to win out the final two weeks of the regular season against UTEP and Vanderbilt to keep their hopes alive. A loss in either game would eliminate Tennessee from any shot at the playoffs this season.
Tennessee could have done wonders for its playoff spot with a win against Georgia but the Vols now sit behind the Bulldogs after the loss, despite a win over Alabama from October. Without any marquee games left on the schedule, Tennessee is going to have a hard time finding their way into the bracket without one of the teams above them such as Notre Dame or Ole Miss slipping up with big games left on the schedule.
The four-team two-loss SEC spin cycle is enough to make your head spin, much less the committees:
No. 7 Alabama: Win over Georgia, loss to Tennessee, Vanderbilt
No. 9 Ole Miss: Win over Georgia, loss to LSU, Kentucky
No. 10 Georgia: Win over Tennessee, loss to Alabama, Ole Miss
No. 11 Tennessee: Win over Alabama, loss to Georgia, Arkansas
Ole Miss and Georgia and ranked above the team they beat but Tennessee sits way behind Alabama despite the win in Neyland Stadium in October.
Tennessee fans will need to add some blue and green to their orange this Saturday as a Florida win over Ole Miss would be enormous for the Vols’ playoff hopes. Vol Nation will also certainly be rooting for Army to take down Notre Dame on Saturday night in Yankee Stadium.
11 isn’t the worst place to be, anybody in front of Tennessee loses, and you are in. No one directly behind you is a threat to jump into the top 10 without claiming an automatic bid.
— Brian Rice (@briancrice) November 20, 2024
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Tennessee veteran wide receiver Bru McCoy spoke about his playoff mindset with the media on Tuesday:
“It’s kind of stating the obvious – Got to win out,” McCoy said on Tuesday. “Got to win convincingly. Got to show some things on tape that maybe we haven’t shown previously, so that whoever knows that we can do certain things at a high level. Really it’s just going as hard as you can for these last two weeks. The way my mind is is like I’m not even thinking about next week. I’m thinking about my next film session in an hour. Really just win out and put all the hard work we’ve had on display. Like we’ve talked a lot about the potential we have and almost being there. Now we’ve got two opportunities in these next two weeks to put that on display.”
