Tennessee will enter the College Football Playoffs for the first time in program history on Dec. 21 when the Volunteers travel north to take on the Ohio State Buckeyes in Ohio Stadium.
The Vols will march into the playoffs as the nine-seed in the bracket and are matched up with the eight-seed Buckeyes in the first round.
While all of the teams in the playoffs have earned the right to be there either by their conference champion status or a top-tier regular season, Tennessee’s path is perhaps more difficult than any others.
To reach the national championship game, Tennessee will likely have to beat three top contenders in (8) Ohio State, (1) Oregon, and (5) Texas en route to Atlanta.
Those three teams make up three of the top four teams in national championship title odds according to FanDuel SportsBook.
Oregon and Texas are tied atop the list with the best odds to win the championship at +360. Meanwhile, Ohio State is the fourth-highest team on the list at +500 odds according to the site. Only Georgia, with +480 odds, sits in between Ohio State and the top two teams in terms of championship odds.
Tennessee, on the other hand, falls in the back half of the list. The Volunteers have the seventh-best odds to win the championship at +2500 according to FanDuel. What’s interesting, though, is the gap that Tennessee lands on the wrong side of.
Oregon, Texas, Georgia, Ohio State, Penn State, and Notre Dame all have triple-digit odds to win the championship – the Fighting Irish round out that first six at +850. Once you get to Tennessee at the next spot behind Notre Dame, the odds plummet to +2500 or more for Tennessee and everyone below the Vols.
That means that while FanDuel believes Tennessee has a better shot than SMU, Indiana, Arizona State, Clemson, and Boise State, the sportsbook isn’t necessarily slotting the Vols in their list of true contenders for the crown.
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That also doesn’t include Georgia, who is the betting favorite to win its side of the bracket opposite from Tennessee’s side in a potential National Championship game. The Bulldogs have the third-best odds to win the championship, which would potentially round out Tennessee’s path of having to beat the four teams with the best title odds in order to win the trophy. Georgia has beaten Tennessee in eight straight games dating back to the 2017 season.
THE BRACKET IS SET ✍️
Who are you taking to win the #CFBPlayoff? pic.twitter.com/9BDWwesEVL
— ESPN (@espn) December 8, 2024
It’s hard to believe that Josh Heupel is looking at the odds, though.
In the words of the great Han Solo from Empire Strikes Back, Heupel’s probably got a bit of the “never tell me the odds” mantra as he prepares his team for the road ahead.
“If you’re not of the mindset going into this thing – anyone, anywhere, anytime – then you’re just there to have a cup of coffee anyway,” Heupel said before Tennessee learned its playoff draw. “So, this is a highly competitive group. We’ll play where we play. We’ll play who we play. Let’s go put the ball down.”
Tennessee’s first game will be against Ohio State at 8:00 p.m. ET on Saturday, Dec. 21. If the Vols win, Tennessee will then move on to the Rose Bowl to take on top-seed Oregon in the quarterfinals.
Stay tuned to Rocky Top Insider for more Tennessee Football playoff coverage this month.
