Where Tennessee is ranked, seeded in updated College Football Playoff Top 25
Tennessee Football moved up to seventh in the new College Football Playoff Top 25 on Tuesday night. The Vols were seeded 9th in the 12-team bracket released by the selection committee. It’s the fourth and final ranking and bracket update before the playoff is officially set and announced on Sunday.
Heading into Tuesday night’s rankings all eyes were on Ohio State, who was No. 2 in the rankings last week, and how far they would fall following their stunning home loss to Michigan. The Buckeyes were three touchdown favorites.
Ohio State fell to to 6th in the rankings and they are the 8th seed in the bracket.
Oregon was ranked No. 1, Texas was No. 2, Penn State was No. 3, Notre Dame was ranked No. 4. and Georgia is 5th.
The bracket in the final projections before it’s officially set had Tennessee has the 9th seed traveling to Ohio State with the winner of the game advancing to play Oregon in the Rose Bowl.
The question now becomes how much movement will there be following conference championship games on Saturday. Clemson with a win over SMU would be in the field and with a loss they would not be in the playoffs. If SMU were to lose how far to they fall. Same for Georgia. The notion has been the committee will not severely punish teams for losing championship games leaving everyone to wonder how much movement there will be next week.
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).
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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.
