ESPN's Greg McElroy: Tennessee has better resume than Penn State, Texas

The first edition of the College Football Playoff rankings were released on Tuesday night, and Tennessee checked in at No. 7 overall in the rankings, slotting into the No. 8 seed in the playoff bracket.

At least one analyst thought the Volunteers could be ranked even higher.

“Tennessee has got an argument to make right here, though,” ESPN’s Greg McElroy said. “I mean they’re sitting at eight. I understand that. Or seven, excuse me. I understand that. But there’s an argument to be made that their resume is actually better than several other one-loss teams like Texas or Penn State.”

Among the key wins for Tennessee are a road win at a then-ranked Oklahoma squad, as well as a home win against No. 7 Alabama. The team also beat a then-ranked NC State squad soundly.

The lone loss came on the road, at Arkansas.

And while the ESPN crew debated the merits of the first College Football Playoff ranking, McElroy stuck to his guns on his take on Tennessee. Specifically, he went to bat for the Volunteers and pushed back on the notion that the rankings are so early not much matters.

“It matters,” McElroy said. “It matters.”

Fellow analyst Booger McFarland also backed McElroy on that against some of the other hosts on ESPN’s panel.

“It’s the first ranking but it’s a glimpse inside what the committee is thinking, and I think the committee is holding the Arkansas loss against Tennessee,” McFarland said.

That’s certainly a reasonable enough assessment.

In any case, Tennessee is clearly in a win-and-you’re-in position following the first week’s release of the rankings.

The Volunteers also have a pretty manageable second half of the slate, with a road game against Georgia standing as the biggest threat. That game comes in two weeks.

Before that Tennessee will take on Mississippi State at home in a game that kicks off at 7 p.m. ET on Saturday on ESPN.