Former Mississippi State and Florida head coach Dan Mullen isn’t too high on his former teams heading into the 2024 season, but does have Tennessee around the conference average when it comes to preseason predictions.
The SEC coach turned SEC Network analyst dropped his official conference preseason predictions on social media last week with a simple message:
“Getting in the [SEC] title game could come down to the tiebreaker,” Mullen said with his tweet. “There are 6 teams that have a chance.”
While Mullen says that six teams have a chance of reaching that SEC title game in Atlanta this year, the former SEC coach does slot Tennessee as the first team outside of that bubble at No. 7 in the conference.
Tennessee trails Texas, Georgia, Missouri, Ole Miss, LSU, and Alabama in Mullen’s predictions, in that order.
Getting in the title game could come down to the tiebreaker. There are 6 teams that have a chance. @SEC @ESPNCFB @espn pic.twitter.com/PP3Wr35H63
— Dan Mullen (@CoachDanMullen) August 22, 2024
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ESPN’s Football Power Index has Tennessee as the fifth team in the conference in preseason projections, with a 5.5 percent chance to win the SEC, a 37.4 percent chance to make the 12-team playoff, a 6.4 percent chance to make the National Championship, and a 3.0 percent chance to win the national title.
It’s noteworthy that ESPN’s FPI has Tennessee’s chance to make the playoffs is vastly higher than winning the SEC, and it leads back to what Dan Mullen was alluding to. The SEC is going to be a brutal gauntlet this year with Texas and Oklahoma in the mix, and the race to be one of the top two teams in the 16-team conference is going to be a hellish climb throughout the season.
The playoffs, on the other hand, have expanded to 12 teams. March Madness has shown the sports world what opportuntity can do for a team, and the same might be true about the college football playoffs. Regardless, though, there’s a bit more wiggle room when trying to be one of the nation’s top 12 compared to the SEC’s top two.
Tennessee will start the season at No. 15 in the AP and Coaches Week 1 poll. The Vols trail the six same teams in both polls, which are the same teams that Mullen has above Tennessee in his rankings, just in a different order:
SEC Teams in the Week 0/1 AP Top 25
No. 1 Georgia
No. 4 Texas
No. 5 Alabama
No. 6 Ole Miss
No. 11 Missouri
No. 13 LSU
No. 15 Tennessee
No. 16 Oklahoma
No. 20 Texas A&M
