Playoff committee 'splitting hairs' between Tennessee, Ole Miss, Georgia and Alabama

Tennessee was on the outside looking in Tuesday night. The Vols were the first team out of the 12-team College Football Playoff bracket when the selection committee released their third rankings update.

They were also the fifth SEC team in what looks like, at least for now, a race for four playoff bids. 

Texas topped the SEC race as the No. 3 seed in the new College Football Playoff projection. Alabama was ranked No. 7 in the Top 25 and seeded ninth in the bracket. Ole Miss was ranked ninth and seeded 10th. Georgia was ranked 10th and seeded 11th. 

Texas (9-1, 5-1 SEC) is at the top of the league standings while Alabama, Ole Miss, Georgia and Tennessee all have 8-2 records. 

Warde Manuel: ‘The committee just had a hard time’

“It’s really splitting hairs,” College Football Playoff selection committee chair Warde Manuel said Tuesday night. “(Tennessee has) great offense, great defense. They play hard. The committee just had a hard time. You’re talking about four really good teams, when you look at Alabama, Mississippi, Georgia and Tennessee.”

The selection committee had Tennessee at No. 11 in the new CFP rankings, but the Vols were bumped from the bracket after BYU, the projected Big 12 champion, was ranked 14th.

Conference champions from the ACC, Big Ten, Big 12 and SEC, along with the highest-ranked champion from the Group of Five conferences, get an automatic bid into the playoff. 

The Vols were ranked No. 7 and seeded eighth in the first two playoff rankings over the last two weeks, but dropped four spots after the 31-17 loss at Georgia Saturday night. 

Ole Miss beat Georgia 28-10 two weeks ago in Oxford, but lost at home to Kentucky in September and lost at LSU in October. 

Tennessee lost at Arkansas in October, then beat Alabama at home two weeks later. 

Alabama beat Georgia at home in September before losing at Vanderbilt and at Tennessee in October. 

Manuel said the committee debated “quite a bit” when it came to ordering the four SEC teams with 8-2 records. 

“They have beaten each other at different times,” Manuel said. “So we have to look at Alabama the last three games, particularly the two before they played Mercer, they won in dominant fashion, and we were really impressed with their win at LSU two weeks ago.”

Alabama beat Mercer 52-7 last week, won 42-13 at LSU two weeks ago and beat Missouri 34-0 a week after the 24-17 loss at Tennessee. 

Ole Miss won 63-31 at Arkansas before the 28-10 win over Georgia two weeks ago. The Rebels beat Oklahoma 26-14 in Oxford on October 26.

No. 10 Tennessee vs. UTEP, Saturday, 1 p.m. ET, SEC Network+

Georgia closes with UMass and Georgia Tech. Ole Miss goes to Florida and plays Mississippi State at home. Alabama goes to Oklahoma and hosts Auburn. Tennessee is home against UTEP on Saturday then goes to Vanderbilt.

“It is close,” Manuel said. “There’s a lot of conversations. We’ll continue to monitor the performance of all these teams as the season progresses towards the end.”

Tennessee has the strength of schedule advantage over Ole Miss, with the Vols’ schedule ranked No. 18 and the Rebels’ ranked No. 28.

“They had a great performance against Georgia,” Manuel said of Ole Miss, “and really dominant on both sides of the ball in that win. For the most part, we’ve been impressed with Jaxson Dart. We’ve been impressed with their defense and how they have performed. 

“Two close losses to Kentucky and LSU. We’ve been impressed with them, and I think they really moved up because they performed well and the teams ahead of them have had losses.”