Where Tennessee Football is ranked, seeded in new College Football Playoff rankings

Tennessee Football on Tuesday night was ranked No. 7 in the new College Football Playoff rankings. The selection committee had the Vols seeded No. 8 in the 12-team playoff bracket. Notre Dame was ranked No. 8 and seeded No. 9, playing at Tennessee in the projected bracket.

Tennessee (8-1, 5-1 SEC) goes on the road to Georgia (7-2, 5-2) on Saturday night (7:30 Eastern Time, ABC) at Sanford Stadium in Athens.

The Vols are coming off a 33-14 win over Mississippi State at Neyland Stadium last week while Georgia lost 28-10 at Ole Miss. Georgia was the first team out in Tuesday’s rankings after the loss in Oxford.

The other first-round matchups in the new bracket was No. 12 Boise State at No. 5 Ohio State, No. 11 Ole Miss at No. 6 Penn State and No. 10 Alabama at No. 7 Indiana. Oregon, Texas, BYU and Oregon received byes into the quarterfinal round.

Oregon topped the rankings, ahead of No. 2 Ohio State, No. 3 Texas, No. 4 Penn State, No. 5 Indiana and No. 6 BYU. Behind No. 7 Tennessee was No. 8 Notre Dame, No. 9 Miami, No. 10 Alabama, No. 11 Ole Miss, No. 12 Georgia and No. 13 Boise State.

Boise State was seeded No. 12 in the bracket as the highest-ranked Group of Five team.

Next week’s ranking update will Tuesday from 7-8 p.m. ET on ESPN. The final two releases will be November 26 (8-9 p.m. ET) and December 3 (7-7:30 p.m. ET), before the 12-team College Football Playoff Bracket is announced on December 8.

Dates and destinations for the College Football Playoff

The first game in the 12-team College Football Playoff era will be played on Friday, December 20, in an 8 p.m. Eastern Time start on ESPN. A triple header will follow on Saturday, December 21: Noon ET on TNT, 4 p.m. ET on TNT and 8 p.m. ET on ESPN.

Quarterfinal games will be played at the Fiesta Bowl, Peach Bowl, Rose Bowl and Sugar Bowl. The Fiesta Bowl will be played on New Year’s Eve in a 7:30 p.m. ET start on ESPN. The other three will be played on New Year’s Day, with the Peach Bowl starting at 1 p.m. ET (ESPN), the Rose Bowl at 5 p.m. ET (ESPN) and the Sugar Bowl at 8:45 p.m. ET (ESPN). 

The semifinal round will be played at the Orange Bowl and Cotton Bowl. The Orange Bowl will be played on Thursday, January 9 (7:30 p.m. ET, ESPN) and the Cotton Bowl will be played on Friday, January 10 (7:30 p.m. ET, ESPN).

The national championship game will be played in Atlanta, set for Monday, January 20 at 7:30 p.m. ET on ESPN.

About the College Football Playoff 

The 12 teams in the playoff are the five conference champions ranked highest by the CFP selection committee, plus the next seven highest-ranked teams by the committee. 

The four highest-ranked champions will be seeded No. 1 through No. 4 and will receive a bye into the quarterfinal round. The fifth conference champion will be seeded where it was ranked by the committee or 12th if it is outside the top 12.

Non-conference champions will be seeded No. 5 through No. 12, even if they’re ranked in the top four, meaning bracket seeding can look different than the final CFP rankings. Teams seeded No. 5 through No. 8 will host first-round playoff games on campus.

Historic bowl relationships and CFP rankings will be taken into consideration when assigning bowl destinations for the top four seeds in the quarterfinal round.

No modifications will be made to the bracket to avoid rematches between teams that have already played this season. The bracket will remain throughout and will not be reseeded. The highest-seeded team will receive preferential bowl placement for the semifinal round.