Tennessee fans will have to root for the unthinkable in the name of the greater good on Saturday…
But it likely won’t be easy for Vol Nation.
Tennessee fans might need to add some (metaphorical) green and blue to their traditional Saturday orange-and-white garb as Vol Nation will need to completely and utterly root for the Florida Gators on Saturday afternoon in The Swamp.
Some might find it tough to root for Florida but won’t struggle to root against Lane Kiffin. No matter how you justify it in your head, though, Tennessee could really use some help from their rivals in the Sunshine State this weekend.
Why does Tennessee need Florida to beat Ole Miss?
Tennessee was ranked at No. 11 in the third edition of the CFB Playoff rankings on Tuesday evening. But despite Tennessee landing in the Top 12, Josh Heupel’s group falls to the first team out in the projected playoff bracket. That is because No. 12 Boise State and No. 13 BYU jump over Tennessee as the first-place teams in the Mountain West Conference and the Big 12, respectively. The five conference champions automatically get a bid into the playoffs with the four highest-ranked champions getting first-round byes.
For Tennessee, this means that the Vols are on the outside looking in but will be the first team to enter the party if someone above them loses. There aren’t too many upset opportunities this weekend but the first one that Tennessee fans will be tracking is Florida-Ole Miss.
The Rebels are slotted two spots higher than Tennessee in the rankings despite both teams having a 9-2 record. Tennessee’s win was also a better win than Ole Miss’s, but Ole Miss beat the team that Tennessee lost to last weekend in Athens. It’s all fairly confusing and convoluted but we’re not diving into the four-team two-loss SEC spin cycle here in this post.
We’re just telling you that an Ole Miss loss would put the Rebels at three losses on the year with two coming against unranked programs. That would give Tennessee a clear path into the playoffs and send the Rebels to a Florida-based bowl around New Year’s, most likely.
So Florida beating Ole Miss is Thing-To-Watch-No. 1 on Saturday. The Gators host the Rebels at Noon ET on Saturday in Gainesville.
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The other team that Tennessee fans should have their eye on Saturday night is Army.
That’s not a hard team to root for especially considering the Black Knights are taking on Notre Dame in Yankee Stadium.
While Notre Dame only has one loss on the season, a second loss to Army on Saturday in New York would effectively put the Fighting Irish on the same two-loss line as Tennessee and the Vols have a better win and a better loss than Notre Dame. As friend of RTI and Outkick reporter Trey Wallace said on X Tuesday night, “if Notre Dame loses another game, there’s no question they should be out. Shouldn’t even be a conversation point.”
With the Army-ND game taking place after the Florida-Ole Miss game on Saturday, it’ll force Tennessee fans to do the unthinkable and root for the Gators in the early window. If the Gators come up short against the Rebels, all eyes in the Volunteer State will then turn to Army on Saturday night in Yankee Stadium for a chance at taking down Notre Dame.
What a weekend it’ll be.
Oh, yeah – this is all assuming Tennessee takes care of business against UTEP this weekend in Neyland Stadium. A loss would make all of this playoff talk obsolete in an instant.
No. 11 Tennessee will host UTEP at 1:00 p.m. ET, meaning Vol Nation will likely know the final score of Ole Miss-Florida before the end of the game in Neyland Stadium.
