Why Tennessee fell behind Alabama in College Football Playoff rankings despite beating Tide
Tennessee fans haven’t forgotten about the Vols’ win over Alabama on the Third Saturday in October, but it may seem like it slipped the mind of the College Football Playoff selection committee.
Alabama (8-2) is ranked No. 7 in the new CFP poll, which was released Tuesday. Tennessee (8-2) dropped to No. 11 after losing 31-17 to Georgia.
So why is there such a gap between Tennessee and Alabama?
College Football Playoff selection committee chair Warde Manuel said it’s because Alabama has gotten hot since losing to Tennessee 24-17 on Oct. 19.
“(SEC teams) have beaten each other at different times. So we have to look at Alabama in the last three games. Particularly the two before they played Mercer, they won in dominant fashion,” Manuel said. “We were really impressed by (Alabama’s) win at LSU two weeks ago. So it is close. There are a lot of conversations, and we’ll continue to monitor the performance of all these teams.”
Alabama has played three games since losing to Tennessee. The Tide won 34-0 over Missouri, 42-13 over LSU and 52-7 over Mercer.
Tennessee has played three games since beating Alabama. The Vols won 28-18 over Kentucky, 33-14 over Mississippi State and lost 31-17 to Georgia.
But Tennessee has competing interests when it comes to Alabama because it’s the best win on the Vols’ resume. In theory, the higher that Alabama goes the better it is for Tennessee.
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Texas (9-1) is No. 3 despite losing its only game to a CFP Top 25 team, a 30-15 defeat to Georgia.
After that, four SEC teams with 8-2 records who beat one another are clustered together.
No. 7 Alabama and No. 9 Ole Miss beat No. 10 Georgia. And Georgia beat No. 11 Tennessee.
So at first glance, the order of those four teams makes sense. But again, Tennessee beat Alabama. Manuel said the Vols were on the short end of a healthy debate.
“One, they just had a loss to Georgia. And they had the loss to Arkansas,” said Manuel, explaining why Tennessee was behind Alabama, Georgia and Ole Miss.
“It’s really splitting hairs. (The Vols) have a great offense, great defense. They play hard. The committee just had a hard time (because) you’re talking about four really good teams. As a committee, we debated it quite a bit.”
Additional quality wins certainly come into play. Alabama beat No. 18 South Carolina and No. 23 Missouri. Ole Miss beat South Carolina. Georgia beat Texas and No. 17 Clemson. Tennessee doesn’t have a Top 25 win besides beating Alabama.
The Vols play UTEP (2-8) on Saturday (1 p.m. ET, SEC Network+) and at Vanderbilt (6-4) on Nov. 30 to finish the regular season.
Tennessee needs one of these teams to lose Saturday
For now, Tennessee is the first team out of the 12-team bracket because conference champions get automatic bids, even if they’re ranked outside the top 12.
No. 12 Boise State (Mountain West) and No. 14 BYU (Big 12) are projected conference champions. So while the Vols are ranked No. 11, they are in effect the No. 13 team in the list of teams in the bracket.
Tennessee should root for an upset in the following games Saturday to get back in the bracket:
No. 4 Penn State (9-1) at Minnesota (6-4) at 3:30 p.m., CBS. A loss would greatly weaken the Nittany Lions, whose best win is No. 25 Illinois.
No. 5 Indiana (10-0) at No. 2 Ohio State (9-1) at noon on FOX. If Indiana lost by a wide margin, it could drop behind Tennessee.
No. 6 Notre Dame (9-1) against Army (9-0) at Yankee Stadium in New York at 7 p.m. on NBC. A Notre Dame loss likely would drop the Irish behind Tennessee.
No. 9 Ole Miss (8-2) at Florida (5-5) at noon on ABC. If the Rebels lost, they would fall behind Tennessee.
No. 15 Texas A&M at Auburn (4-6) at 7:30 p.m. on ESPN. The Aggies are hovering behind Tennessee, but a loss would end their CFP hopes.
The CFP rankings will be updated each Tuesday for the next two weeks, and the final CFP field will be announced on Dec. 8. The Vols must win their final two games and hope for a break to go their way.
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: Why Tennessee fell behind Alabama in CFP rankings despite beating Tide
