ESPN’s Heather Dinich moved Tennessee into the College Football Playoff field last week, with the Vols coming off a 51-10 neutral-site win over North Carolina State. After a 71-0 win over Kent State Saturday at Neyland Stadium, the Vols were bumped out of the field.
Dinich on Tuesday updated her 12-team College Football Playoff bracket with Tennessee left on the outside looking in as one of the first four teams out of the field.
The new projection has Texas, Ohio State, Miami and Kansas State as the top four seeds, in that order, with Georgia, Ole Miss, USC, Oregon, Alabama, Penn State, Missouri and Northern Illinois filling out the rest of the field.
The first four teams out were Tennessee, Oklahoma State, Oklahoma and Clemson. The next four out were Notre Dame, Boise State, Utah and LSU, with Michigan being removed from the bubble.
“The Vols have looked the part of a playoff team,” Dinich wrote , “and if they have another complete performance this week at Oklahoma, which will be their first real test of the season, they’ll move up.”
Up Next: No. 6 Tennessee at No. 15 Oklahoma
Tennessee (3-0) is the first SEC opponent for Oklahoma (3-0) when the two teams meet Saturday night (7:30 Eastern Time, ABC) at Oklahoma Memorial Stadium in Norman.
Tennessee opened the season with a 69-3 win over Chattanooga, before the 51-10 win over NC State and the 71-0 drubbing of Kent State.
Oklahoma started with a 51-3 win over Temple, beat Houston 16-12 at home then beat Tulane 34-19.
“The Sooners are still on the bubble because they’ve had three straight home games against unranked Group of 5 opponents,” Dinich wrote . “Their standing can change quickly this week, though, with a huge opportunity at home against Tennessee.”
Dinich’s new bracket has No. 12 Northern Illinois going to No. 5 Georgia in the first round. The other three first-round games were No. 9 Alabama at No. 8 Oregon, No. 11 Missouri at No. 6 Ole Miss and No. 10 Penn State at No. 7 USC.
Dinich wrote that Northern Illinois, which won two weeks ago against then-No. 5 Notre Dame, was in the field in place of the Vols, with the highest-ranked Group of 5 team being guaranteed a playoff berth.
“In this scenario, NIU would bump out Tennessee for the No. 12 seed,” Dinich wrote , “because there has to be a spot for the fifth-highest ranked conference champion.”
Both the ESPN Playoff Predictor and the ESPN bowl projections had different outlooks for the Vols.
The playoff predictor gives Tennessee a 73% chance to make the 12-team playoff. It’s the fourth-highest percentage, behind Texas (91%), Alabama (84%) and Ohio State (78%). Next in line are Georgia and Ole Miss, both at 70%. Oklahoma is the last team listed by the Playoff Predictor, at 14%.
In ESPN’s bowl projections this week , both Kyle Bonagura and Mark Schlabach had Tennessee hosting a playoff game in the first round. Both had the Vols as a No. 7 seed, with Bonagura predicting Oregon at Tennessee and Schlabach predicting USC at Tennessee.
Both writers also projected the Vols to advance to quarterfinals and face No. 2 Ohio State in the Rose Bowl.
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