Paul Finebaum examines Tennessee's College Football Playoff resume following Alabama victory

Paul Finebaum believes the Tennessee Volunteers have put themselves in a great spot to make the expanded College Football Playoff by virtue of their win on the Third Saturday in October over Alabama.

It may not have been pretty, but Tennessee defeated Alabama in Knoxville once again, the second time it’s happened in three seasons. Josh Heupel continues to slay the Crimson Tide, and Finebaum believes the Playoff is where his focus will lay moving forward.

“They are very fine, and had Tennessee lost that game, they wouldn’t have been,” Finebaum responded, via SportsCenter. “They really had not had a lot to show for their resume, but they do now. Beating Alabama mattered. They’ll get Georgia later in the season, and they’ll probably have to negotiate that game thoroughly well.

“With only one loss, they’re still alive. The conventional wisdom is two losses and you’re in, and Tennessee looks in right now.”

As Finebaum alluded to, Tennessee’s clash with Georgia will likely be the tipping point for the Playoff chances. A second loss coming on Nov. 16 wouldn’t be a death knell to their hopes, but it certainly could be, depending on what happens in conferences like the Big Ten, the ACC and the Big 12.

Time will tell how high Tennessee can climb, but they made a believer out of Paul Finebaum in Week 8. They’ll enjoy a bye week in Week 9, before getting back after it against Kentucky on Nov. 2, with designs on making an extended run in the SEC.

Josh Heupel addresses College Football Playoff implications of win vs. Alabama

Following the win over Alabama, Josh Heupel addressed the College Football Playoff implications that come with the win. In particular, he emphasized the need to find a way to keep his team focused moving forward.

“Our guys are aware of, I mean, I wish I could put blinders on them,” Heupel said. “That’s not real. Whatever the TV’s gonna have on the bottom of the ticker, you know what I mean? But for us to have a chance to be the team that we want to be, man, it’s about being in the present.

“It’s about competing as hard as you can every single day to grow and play the way that they’re capable and then the unit is capable of.”

There have been some concerns in recent weeks that Heupel knows that Tennessee needs to improve on if they’re going to make noise down the stretch. That, notably, includes the slow starts on offense with the Volunteers failing to score in the first half for three straight games.

“And there’s still things on defense and, man, there’s a lot more things on offense that we got to clean up,” Heupel said. “Good teams get better and this team’s got to continue to get better. If it does that they’ll have a chance to be a good team.”

If Tennessee were to make the College Football Playoff, it would be their first ever time doing so. That comes after Josh Heupel previously took Tennessee to its first New Year’s Six Bowl game since the 2004 season when they went to the Cotton Bowl.

On3’s Dan Morrison contributed to this article.