The second edition of the 2024 College Football Playoff ranking has officially been released as of Tuesday night’s selection show on ESPN.
Josh Heupel’s Tennessee Volunteers are staying put in the rankings with a massive SEC game on the horizon this weekend. The Vols will take on SEC rival Georgia in a game with major playoff implications.
The Tennessee-Georgia contest on Saturday will be a Top 12 clash.
Tennessee remains at No. 7 in the Nov. 12 College Football Playoff rankings, the same spot they held last week during the rankings debut.
Tennessee was jumped by No. 6 BYU and No. 5 Indiana in the rankings, two undefeated teams heading into this weekend’s slate of games. BYU and Indiana were both ranked behind Tennessee in last week’s rankings despite all three winning their games on Saturday.
Tennessee’s No. 7 ranking lands the Volunteers as the 8-seed in the second edition of the College Football Playoff projections. Tennessee’s 8-seed projection is lower than its CFB Playoff ranking because of the automatic bids. Miami, the No. 9 team in the rankings, is bumped up to the 4-seed because the Hurricanes are the leader in the ACC title picture. The four highest-ranked conference champions will receive a first-round bye regardless of positioning in the rankings.
Here’s a look at how everything shook out on Tuesday night in the rankings and the projected playoff bracket:
The updated College Football Playoff Top 25 rankings 🏆 pic.twitter.com/ymA9wlI1dB
— ESPN (@espn) November 13, 2024
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Tennessee’s ranking and bracket indicates that the Vols would be hosting a first-round playoff game if the regular-season ended today. Teams 5-8 in the seeding will host first-round playoff games at their campus stadium while teams 9-12 in the seeding will visit those schools. As previously mentioned, the four highest-ranked conference champions will receive a first-round bye.
Tennessee is slotted in the hypothetical bracket projection as the 8-seed hosting 9-seed Notre Dame in Neyland Stadium.
Tennessee is the second-highest team in the Nov. 12 CFB Playoff rankings behind only No. 3 Texas. A handful of other SEC teams land behind Tennessee in the Top 12 including No. 10 Alabama, No. 11 Ole Miss, and No. 12 Georgia.
Stay tuned to Rocky Top Insider for more on Tennessee’s spot in the CFB Playoff projections.
No. 12 Georgia will host 7 Tennessee on Saturday night at 7:30 p.m. ET in Athens, GA.
This story will be updated.
