The Tennessee Volunteers lost in a a heartbreaker on Nov. 2, falling to the Oklahoma Sooners ahead of their bye week. Despite this, however, the team’s hopes of making the College Football Playoffs (CFP) are still alive, as the team tries to bounce back against New Mexico State later this weekend.
The latest CFP committee top 25 have been released, and it features Tennessee at No. 23, which means the Vols are still hanging in there, but near the bottom of the list. The team had a bye week, so it did not affect their ranking much, though they were stuck near the lower portion of the Top 25.
Their rivals losing their games also helped them retain their place in the rankings, with the No. 22 Missouri Tigers getting beaten by No. 3 Texas A&M, and then No. 20 Iowa losing to Oregon. Meanwhile, No. 23 Washington had been upset by Wisconsin, which made the lower portion of the Top 25 rankings even more interesting. In fact, the Vols even went up two places this week by doing nothing because of the other teams losing.
The College Football Playoffs will only feature 12 teams, though, so while Tennessee does have a shot, its chances are not that big to make it to the final 12. Furthermore, no three-loss team had made it last season, so even if Tennessee does win all its remaining games this season, they still might not even make it. The Vols currently have a 6-3 record, which means their chances of making it to the CFP are already slipping, but this also means they might get to play a Bowl game.
Tennessee Bowl Game Scenario
For now, Tennessee only has a 1.9% chance to make it to the College Football Playoffs, according to ESPN’s Football Power Index. Because of this, they are currently on track to play in a Bowl game, with several outlets already giving their predictions of what Bowl the team will be playing on and against which team.
- CBS Sports: Music City Bowl vs. Illinois
- ESPN (Mark Schlabach): ReliaQuest Bowl vs. Iowa
- ESPN (Kyle Bonagura): Duke’s Mayo vs. Louisville
- USA Today: Citrus Bowl vs. Michigan
- College Football News: Citrus Bowl vs. Michigan
- On3 (Brett McMurphy): Gator Bowl vs. Miami
- Athlon Sports: Gator Bowl vs. Miami
- Sports Illustrated: ReliaQuest Bowl vs. Illinois
- The Athletic: Citrus Bowl vs. Michigan
The most likely would be the Citrus Bowl, as the SEC has it get its pick of teams that are not playing in the CFP. Next in line are Reliaquest (Tampa, Fla.), Gator (Jacksonville, Fla.), Texas (Houston), Music City (Nashville, Tenn.), Liberty (Memphis, Tenn.) and Duke’s Mayo (Charlotte) respectively.
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