Tennessee going to Ohio State in first round of College Football Playoff
Tennessee will play at Ohio State in the first round of the College Football Playoff on Saturday, December 21. The bracket was set and announced for the first 12-team playoff on Sunday afternoon. The winner of the 8-9 game will advance to face No. 1 Oregon in the Rose Bowl.
The first-round game at Ohio Stadium in Columbus will be played on Saturday, December 21, in an 8 p.m. Eastern Time start on ESPN and ABC.
The Vols (10-2) were the highest-seeded team to go on the road in the first round. Teams seeded Nos. 5-8 host playoff games in the first round while teams seeded Nos. 9-12 go on the road.
The four-highest ranked conference championships received byes into the quarterfinals. No. 1 Oregon followed by No. 2 Georgia, No. 3 Boise State and No. 4 Arizona State.
The other three first-round matchups are No. 12 Clemson at No. 5 Texas (December 21, 4 p.m. ET, TNT), No. 11 SMU at No. 6 Penn State (December 21, Noon ET, ABC/ESPN) and No. 10 Indiana at No. 7 Notre Dame (Friday, December 20, 8 p.m. ET, ABC/ESPN).
Dates, locations for the 12-team College Football Playoff
The first playoff game will be played on Friday, December 20, ahead of a tripleheader the following day.
The quarterfinals will be played on Tuesday, December 31 and Wednesday, January 1. The semifinals will be played on Thursday, January 9 and Friday, January 10.
There is no re-seeding once the bracket is set. Winners from the Rose Bowl, Fiesta Bowl, Peach Bowl and Sugar Bowl will advance to play in the Orange Bowl or Cotton Bowl.
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The 2025 national championship game will be played on Monday, January 20 at Mercedes-Benz Stadium in Atlanta.
Where Tennessee was ranked in the College Football Playoff Top 25 this season
Tennessee was ranked No. 7 in the first College Football Playoff Top 25 of the season on November 5, after the Vols beat Kentucky 28-18 three days earlier to improve to 7-1 on the season. It was the same ranking a week later, after a 33-14 win over Mississippi State.
The selection committee dropped Tennessee four spots to No. 11 on November 19, after the 31-17 loss at Georgia. The Vols were the first team out of the 12-team bracket, too, getting bumped by Boise State as the projected Mountain West champion ranked outside the top 12.
The Vols jumped back into the playoff for good on November 26, moving up to No. 8 after Indiana lost at Ohio State, Ole Miss lost at Florida and Alabama lost at Oklahoma on a chaotic November 23.
Tennessee last week was ranked No. 7 and seeded ninth in the final bracket projection, coming in one spot behind Ohio State after the Buckeyes were upset at home by Michigan, 13-10.
