'Impressive' Alabama win, 4-1 record vs. teams above .500 has Tennessee at No. 7 in playoff ranking
Tennessee’s 19-14 loss at Arkansas on October 5 is something the College Football Playoff selection committee “discussed a lot,” according to committee chair Warde Manuel.
But when the first College Football Playoff rankings and bracket projection were released by the committee Tuesday night, the Vols had shown enough outside of Arkansas to be ranked No. 7 while seeded No. 8 in the bracket, hosting a first round game against No. 9 Indiana.
“Tennessee has an impressive win over Alabama at No. 11,” Manuel said on a conference call with reporters after the rankings were revealed on ESPN, “and wins over North Carolina State and Oklahoma, 4-1 against teams above .500.
“The loss at Arkansas was something that we discussed a lot.”
Penn State ranked ahead of Tennessee at No. 6
Tennessee (7-1, 4-1 SEC) has bounced back from the Arkansas loss with three straight home wins, an overtime win over Florida, 23-17, a 24-17 win over Alabama and a 28-18 win over Kentucky. The Vols go to Georgia next week, after hosting Mississippi State on Saturday.
Penn State was ranked just ahead of Tennessee at No. 6, despite its 20-13 home loss to Ohio State on Saturday. Penn State is ranked 28th in strength of schedule while Tennessee is No. 33.
“Penn State,” Manuel said, “lost to the No. 2 Ohio State Buckeyes, and it was a game that went back and forth, and obviously a game that could have gone the other way. It was back and forth.
“In that, they have wins over Illinois and Southern Cal in overtime, an opening win at West Virginia, which is difficult to play. So we looked at their body of work.”
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“ … I just think Penn State, in terms of their body of work and what the committee saw in terms of their body of work, that came to the ranking of Penn State at 6 and Tennessee at 7.”
Warde Manuel: ‘We think highly of Indiana’
Indiana, despite its 8-0 record, was ranked No. 8 and seeded No. 9 in the bracket with the No. 103 strength of schedule.
“I think the play and who they’ve played thus far,” Manuel said of Indiana’s ranking and seeding behind one-loss teams, “the performance of the teams ahead of them and how the committee evaluated them.
“Look, we think highly of Indiana. Again, dominant, dominant wins against the teams on their schedule, so we recognize that and also understand that they can only play who’s in front of them and who’s scheduled.
“Top-10 scoring defense only allowing 14 points per game, top-20 offense,” Manuel added. “They are just an impressive team. It does go into an evaluation of what we see but also who they play, and we look forward to seeing how they perform as the season progresses in the next four to five weeks.”
