The College Football Playoff rankings clearly trump the Associated Press Poll, the Coaches’ Poll or, even, The Dunkel Poll if you want to go back to the early part of the 2000’s. However, the AP Poll is the longest running and most respected poll in college football from a historical perspective.
The College Football Playoff ranking will determine who plays for a national championship and it has spoken. Tennessee is No. 1. Georgia is No. 3. However, even though the AP Poll is now superseded by the CFP rankings, let’s compare and contrast utilizing the AP Poll, which has the Vols No. 2 and the Bulldogs No. 1, respectively.
No matter how you cut it, the Tennessee-Georgia game is historic before it even kicks off. First, let’s start with the Vols. They have only been in one matchup amongst the top two teams in the nation. That worked out pretty well. The Vols beat Florida State for a national championship following the 1998 season.
As far as any No. 1 vs. No. 2 matchup, those don’t happen very often in the regular season no matter if the Vols are involved or not. In fact, the SEC has only been a part of two such games.
Tennessee is also in pretty rare territory when it comes to undefeated seasons heading into November. The Vols have only been 8-0 seven times in school history and only three times without a General named Neyland. That should give some perspective to a season that has moved so fast that it’s tough to keep track.
