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Where Tennessee football ranks in first College Football Playoff poll: See full list

adam sparks, knoxville news sentinel
·2 min read

Tennessee football debuted at No. 7 in the first College Football Playoff poll, released on Tuesday night.

The CFP selection committee ranked the Top 25 teams for the new 12-team playoff format. The rankings will be updated each Tuesday for the next month, and the final CFP field will be announced on Dec. 8.

There are five guaranteed spots (ACC, Big 12, Big Ten, SEC champions, plus highest-ranked non P4 conference champion). And then seven teams get at-large bids, based on their ranking in the CFP poll.

The four highest ranked conference champions will get a first-round bye. If these first rankings determined the playoff, Tennessee would host Indiana in a first-round game at Neyland Stadium. However, the rankings will change each week, so stay tuned.

The Vols (7-1, 4-1 SEC) have a path to the playoff in the first season that the bracket expands to 12 teams. Their strongest win was over Alabama, and their lone loss was at Arkansas.

Tennessee has four games remaining in the regular season, including Saturday (7 p.m. ET, ESPN) against Mississippi State (2-7, 0-5) at Neyland Stadium. Then the Vols have a key road game at Georgia (7-1, 5-1) on Nov. 16 (7:30 p.m. ET, ABC), which should impact the playoff rankings.

Tennessee is ranked No. 6 in the US LBM Coaches Poll and No. 7 in the AP Top 25 after a 28-18 win over Kentucky in Week 10 of the 2024 season.

College Football Playoff Top 25 rankings

  1. Oregon (9-0)

  2. Ohio State (7-1)

  3. Georgia (7-1)

  4. Miami (9-0)

  5. Texas (7-1)

  6. Penn State (7-1)

  7. Tennessee (7-1)

  8. Indiana (9-0)

  9. BYU (8-0)

  10. Notre Dame (7-1)

  11. Alabama (6-2)

  12. Boise State (7-1)

  13. SMU (8-1)

  14. Texas A&M (7-2)

  15. LSU (6-2)

  16. Ole Miss (7-2)

  17. Iowa State (7-1)

  18. Pittsburgh (7-1)

  19. Kansas State (7-2)

  20. Colorado (6-2)

  21. Washington State (7-1)

  22. Louisville (6-3)

  23. Clemson (6-2)

  24. Missouri (6-2)

  25. Army (8-0)

Adam Sparks is the Tennessee football beat reporter. Email adam.sparks@knoxnews.com. X, formerly known as Twitter@AdamSparks. Support strong local journalism by subscribing at knoxnews.com/subscribe.

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This article originally appeared on Knoxville News Sentinel: Tennessee football: Where Vols rank in first College Football Playoff poll