Paul Finebaum Answers If Tennessee Will Make College Football Playoff

It had been over 15 years since the Tennessee Volunteers had last been ranked in the top seven in the country until Josh Heupel was hired as head coach.

In just his second season, Heupel led the Volunteers to their first top-seven ranking since 2006 and their first No. 1 ranking since 1998. The Volunteers followed that 11-2 season up with a 9-4 campaign in 2023.

According to ESPN's Paul Finebaum , the Volunteers' chances of making the College Football Playoff this season depend on their performance in three key games against Oklahoma, Alabama and Georgia. If Tennessee manages to win at least one of these matchups, Finebaum believes that they have a good shot at making the playoff.

"I think it's a manageable schedule," Finebaum said. "There's always a tweener game or two. I think Alabama is a game that Tennessee has to win. I think that Oklahoma is a really treacherous early-season game. To me, it comes down to Oklahoma, Alabama and Georgia. If the Vols can win one of those three, I think they can get to the playoffs."

The ESPN Football Power Index (FPI) is a metric that aims to predict a team's performance for the remainder of the season. It ranks the Volunteers as the 9th best team in the country and predicts an 8-4 season for them this year.

The FPI ranks Tennessee at No. 9 in terms of its likelihood of making the College Football Playoff. If this were to happen, it would be the Volunteers' first playoff appearance in the program's history and would represent a significant milestone in Heupel and his team's rebuilding process.

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