Tuesday night wasn’t a great one for the Tennessee Vols. UT was ranked 11th, but was the first team out of the bracket. As such, the Vols needed some help in order to get back into the playoff field.
Boy, how they got it on Saturday.
#9 Ole Miss fell to a resurgent Florida team 24-17 in Gainesville, knocking the Rebels out of the field. #5 Indiana also got thoroughly whipped by Ohio State 38-15, likely triggering a large drop in Tuesday’s new rankings. However, the big one was #7 Alabama getting blasted 24-3 by Oklahoma in Norman, the Crimson Tide’s first game without scoring a touchdown since 2011.
Tennessee now stands to rise above all of those teams on Tuesday. And that’s how most experts see it.
Here’s where the Vols check in among the CFP projections of various pundits after Saturday:
- Kyle Bonagura, ESPN: #10 Tennessee at #7 Penn State
- Mark Schlabach, ESPN: #9 Tennessee at #8 Texas
- Jerry Palm, CBS Sports: #10 Tennessee at #7 Penn State
- Bill Bender, The Sporting News: #10 Tennessee at #7 Notre Dame
- Andy Staples, On3 Sports: #9 Tennessee at #8 Texas
- Brad Crawford, 247 Sports: #10 Tennessee at #7 Notre Dame
So, the consensus among the pundits is almost universally that the Vols would end up as one of the first few at large teams to have to go on the road, with trips to Happy Valley, Austin, or South Bend all in play.
That being said, there’s still the opportunity for a little bit more chaos next weekend, as Notre Dame has to travel across the country to face USC, with Texas-Texas A&M also on deck. More upsets there could be enough to get the Vols in the conversation as perhaps one of the final at large teams to host a first-round game.
Still, that’s a big if, as the Vols have to find a way to get past a Vanderbilt team that’s been flat-out tough this year. No doubt the Commodores would love to punctuate their season by spoiling Tennessee’s.
But if the Vols can get by, these are the scenarios they could be looking at once the committee announces the final rankings on Sunday, December 8.