Tennessee makes big jump up in latest College Football Playoff rankings

Tennessee Football moved up to No. 8 in the new College Football Playoff Top 25 on Tuesday night. The Vols were seeded ninth in the 12-team bracket released by the selection committee. It’s the third of four ranking and bracket updates, before the playoff is officially set and announced on December 8.

Oregon was ranked No. 1, Ohio State was No. 2, Texas was No. 3, Penn State was No. 4 and Notre Dame was ranked No. 5. Miami was No. 6 and Georgia was No. 7.

The projected bracket had Tennessee as the No. 9 playing at No. 8 Georgia in the first round of the playoffs, with the winner advancing to face No. 1 Oregon in the Rose Bowl.

The Bulldogs could play their way out of the first round by winning the SEC Championship on December 7 in Atlanta, where they’ll face the winner of Saturday’s game between Texas and Texas A&M.

The new bracket on Tuesday had Oregon, Texas, Miami and Boise State getting byes into the quarterfinal round. The other first-round matchups were No. 12 Arizona State at No. 5 Ohio State, No. 11 Indiana at No. 6 Penn State and No. 10 SMU at No. 7 Notre Dame.

Tennessee was ranked 11th and was the first team out of the playoff bracket last week, following the loss at Georgia. The Vols benefitted from multiple outcomes on Saturday, including Ole Miss losing at Florida, Indiana losing at Ohio State and Alabama losing at Oklahoma.

Tennessee (8-2, 5-2 SEC) goes to Vanderbilt (6-5, 3-4) on Saturday (Noon Eastern Time, ABC) looking to cement its spot in the 12-team playoff field with a win. The Vols beat UTEP 56-0 at home on Saturday while Vandy lost 24-17 at LSU, its third loss over its last four games.

The selection committee will update the rankings and the bracket seeding one final time next Tuesday, before the official bracket is released on Selection Sunday.

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.