A day of chaos in the SEC continued on Saturday night as Oklahoma upset No. 7 Alabama and Auburn upset No. 15 Texas A&M in College Station.
After entering Saturday on the wrong side of the College Football Playoff bubble, Tennessee now controls it’s own destiny to make the playoffs and even has an outside shot to host a playoff game.
Both seventh-ranked Alabama and ninth-ranked Ole Miss entered the day ahead of Tennessee in the rankings but both lost as two touchdown favorites on the road. Oklahoma suffocated Alabama’s offense, forcing three Jalen Milroe turnovers to coast to a 24-13 victory over Crimson Tide.
Ole Miss turned it over on downs twice deep in Florida territory as the Gators upset Lane Kiffin’s squad 24-17. The Rebels fell to 8-3 (4-3 SEC) with the loss ahead of their regular season finale against rival Mississippi State.
Texas A&M was ranked four spots behind Tennessee entering the day but the Aggies had a path to potentially jumping Tennessee with a win over Texas to finish the regular season 10-2 (7-1 SEC). But Auburn defeated Texas A&M 43-41 in four overtime to hand the Aggies their third loss of the season.
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The Aggies can still advance to the College Football Playoffs with a win over Texas and then over Georgia in the SEC Championship to earn the SEC’s automatic bid. However, that seems quite unlikely at the moment.
Tennessee, who entered the day ranked 11th, will jump to at least ninth in the newest playoff rankings on Tuesday due to the losses. The Vols could also jump No. 5 Indiana who suffered a 38-15 loss at Ohio State in it first true test of the 2024 season.
But most importantly, Tennessee is now locked into a College Football Playoff spot if they take care of business and defeat instate foe Vanderbilt next week in Nashville. The Commodores fell at LSU 24-17 on Saturday night and are 6-5 (3-4 SEC) entering the final week of the regular season.
The Vols also now have an outside shot to host a first round playoff game. Teams seeded five to eight host the first round games. The loser of the Big 10 Championship (Oregon or Ohio State), loser of the SEC Championship (Georgia, Texas or Texas A&M), Penn State and Notre Dame are currently the favorites to land those spots.
Tennessee would need USC to upset Notre Dame next week and to jump Indiana in the rankings to earn the No. 8 seed and to host a first round game.
