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The Tennessee Volunteers are ranked No. 7 in the most recent edition of the College Football Playoff rankings. Despite winning by 19 points against an SEC opponent on Saturday, they stood pat in those standings.
The Vols were jumped by Indiana and BYU, both of whom remain undefeated this season. With that being said, questions have been raised regarding the movement.
Both the Hoosiers and Cougars sat behind Tennessee in Week 10. Not much changed on the field in Week 11, though the rankings didn’t reflect that.
All three teams won, and you could argue that the Vols’ victory was the most impressive of the bunch. Tennessee took Mississippi State down 33-14 even with starting QB Nico Iamaleava leaving the game with injury.
BYU, meanwhile, won on a last second field goal to a 4-4 Utah team. Indiana beat 5-4 Michigan by a score of 20-15. The Hoosiers mustered just 20 yards of offense in the second half of that contest.
Tennessee stayed at No. 7. Both BYU and Indiana hopped them at No. 5 and 6. Committee chair Warde Manuel’s explanation of the movement offered little clarity.
“It really came down to the play last week of both Indiana and BYU, both winning big games on their schedule. Tennessee, the offense has struggled… We just felt as a committee that at this time Indiana has been playing very well. A close game against Michigan, but they’ve dominated everyone else.”
He started by saying last week’s performance mattered, again, with Tennessee’s win being the most impressive. He then immediately contradicted himself by ignoring Indiana’s close win over Michigan.
Manuel says the Michigan game essentially didn’t matter. If that was the case, why would Indiana suddenly be more highly valued than a Tennessee football team that was viewed as the better squad in the committee’s eyes just one week ago?
The Vols think they know the answer. Warde Manuel is the athletic director for his alma mater, Michigan!
Indiana jumped Tennessee after beating a 5-5 Michigan team by 5 points.
Why?
The chair of the CFP committee is the Michigan athletic director.
— Kerry Williams (@kerrywilliams_) November 13, 2024
Did that win over the Wolverines matter to the CFP chair more than he led on? Tennessee fans believe so! It surely seems Big Ten squads are being valued more highly than their SEC counterparts.
Four Big Ten teams were placed in the Top 5 with a Big Ten administrator at the helm. By pushing Indiana to No. 5, it creates a potential Top 5 matchup between the Hoosiers and Ohio State in a few short weeks, thus giving Indiana a chance to stay in the Top 12 conversation with a loss – despite a strength of schedule that currently ranks 100th!
With all of the money involved in these playoff spots, even the slightest bias could prove detrimental. And the committee has already started to dig its own shallow grave.
As seen in years past, the selection group has been inconsistent in its everchanging rankings. One week, strength of schedule seems to weigh most heavily. The next, it’s win/loss record. The next, it’s good wins vs. bad losses. There’s no consistency!
We saw it last year with Florida State, a team that was undefeated and ranked in the Top 4 of the College Football Playoff Poll up until the final release. Oddly enough, last year’s chair was from the ACC. The committee cited an injury to starting QB Jordan Travis in its reasoning, information that had been known for more than two weeks prior to that final poll. Nothing changed when the injury initially occurred. Then, the script flipped without rhyme or reason!
It’s as if members were hoping it would all work itself out on its own, but there was no problem. FSU continued to win, even with its backup signal callers. When Plan A didn’t work out, the committee went against its prior criteria to push Alabama into the Final 4.
Is the same thing happening to the Tennessee football team? Its supporters believe so! Luckily for the Vols, they have a chance to force the committee to respect them this week with a matchup vs. Georgia looming. A win would get them one step closer to an SEC Championship appearance and potential first-round bye.