The Tennessee Vols now know the mission on Saturday: beat the Vanderbilt Commodores, and they will lock up a spot in the college football playoff for the first time in program history.
Tennessee moved up three spots from 11 to 8 in the new rankings released on Tuesday night after defeating UTEP 56-0 on Saturday and seeing a host of teams above them lose.
The NEW CFP bracket projection
Did your team make the cut? pic.twitter.com/ZllfR51pys
— ESPN (@espn) November 27, 2024
THE UPDATED CFP TOP 25 HAS DROPPED pic.twitter.com/p4pom73Np0
— ESPN (@espn) November 27, 2024
The Vols are currently bracketed to return to Athens for a rematch from the teams’ game just 10 days ago. However, that will likely change, given the Bulldogs are locked into the SEC championship game. They also get a pesky Georgia Tech team at home on Saturday.
Alabama dropped 6 spots after their 24-3 loss to Oklahoma, coming in at 13 and the second team out of the bracket. Honestly, they might be a little bit fortunate not to have fallen further. That was a really, really bad loss to a team that just about everyone had been beating convincingly. Now, Clemson sits in front of them as the first team to go into the field should an upset take place on Saturday involving a team above them. With both of those teams in front of them, it appears Ole Miss’s chances to back door their way in are extremely unlikely at this point even with massive chaos.
And there’s still reason for Tennessee fans to watch and root for an upset on Saturday, whether that’s Penn State, Notre Dame, Miami, Georgia, Ohio State, and/or Texas. Tennessee is just one spot from moving up from a first-round road game to a first-round home game at Neyland Stadium. The importance of having that advantage is obvious and can’t be overstated.
The mission is clear on Saturday in Nashville. Win. Find a way. Do that, and the Tennessee program will take that major step forward that fans have been waiting for the last two years. It’s all in their hands now.