Josh Heupel and the Vols are headed to Big Ten country to begin the College Football Playoff. Tennessee came in at No. 7 in the final CFP rankings but will be the No. 8 seed due to auto bids and will face the No. 9 seed Ohio State Buckeyes (ranked No. 7) on Saturday, Dec. 20 in the first round.
The Vols, who finished 10-2 and 6-2 in SEC play with losses on the road to the Arkansas Razorbacks and Georgia Bulldogs, were clearly going to play a road game to kick off the playoff after last week’s rankings came out and they were No. 7, behind Ohio State. All that was in question was who they would play.
Although the Vols have themselves to blame for having to play on the road, they were a victim of the committee’s standards. The CFP Committee made it clear they wouldn’t hold conference championship week against teams, and that does make sense, but that rule benefitted Penn State and the Texas Longhorns in a unique way.
Both Penn State and UT have two losses each. However, Heupel’s team has a higher strength of schedule and more wins against top 30 teams. The same could also hold true for Texas, who lost to the Georgia Bulldogs twice, once without Carson beck. Texas finished No. 5, and PSU came in at No. 6.
That same standard also kept the SMU Mustangs in over the Alabama Crimson Tide since SMU was ranked higher last week even though SMU has no good wins. Again, while it makes sense on the surface, the scheduling imbalance that pushes teams into the conference title games need to be taken into account.
Simply put, the committee backed itself into a corner by weighing record so heavily to begin with, and they couldn’t back out of it once conference title week began. As a result, Tennessee will have to travel to the midwest for its first CFP game.
If Tennessee wins, they’ll face the No. 1 seed Oregon Ducks in the Rose Bowl. The Vols have never won that bowl game but played it twice, to close out the 1939 and 1944 seasons. In both instances, they were shut out by the USC Trojans.
UT and Ohio State have only played once, with the Vols winning 20-14 in the Citrus Bowl to close out the 1995 season 11-1. Ohio State, who entered that matchup 11-1, had Heisman Trophy winner Eddie George in that game, while the Vols had Peyton Manning.
