Tennessee beat the College Football Playoff committee’s No. 6 team by 28 points Saturday night. On Sunday the new AP poll came out with Alabama No. 7, Texas No. 8 and Tennessee No. 9.
So the team we beat 26-10 is still two spots ahead of us. Make it make sense.
The committee asked for a quality win. Here’s one.
Last Tuesday the committee had Alabama No. 5 and Tennessee No. 13. Chair Hunter Yurachek explained it as strength of schedule and quality wins, and said of the Vols, “You’ve got to go a little deeper to see a quality win.”
Fine. Kentucky walked into Neyland 7-1 and sitting No. 6 in the committee’s own rankings. Kentucky walked out with two field goals. Tennessee 34, Kentucky 6. You don’t have to dig very deep for that one.
The Alabama case is about margins
Sunday morning, columnist Kevin Scarbinsky made the case for the Tide on X. Short version: Tennessee beat Kentucky by 28 at home, Alabama beat Kentucky by 28 in Lexington. Tennessee lost to South Carolina, and Alabama beat South Carolina by 31.
The numbers are right. Alabama won 45-17 at Kentucky in September and beat South Carolina 49-18. We lost 27-24 in Columbia. I’m not pretending that didn’t happen.
But go read the committee’s own protocol. The tiebreakers it lists for comparable teams are strength of schedule, head-to-head competition, and comparative outcomes against common opponents. And that last one comes with a note in parentheses: without incenting margin of victory.
Read that again. The whole Alabama argument is margin of victory. “By 28 on the road.” “By 31.” The rule book specifically says don’t do that. And “on the road” isn’t in there at all. Head-to-head is.
Same record, and we played the game
Both teams are 7-2. Alabama lost to Georgia and Tennessee. Tennessee lost to Texas and South Carolina by a combined six points.
And here’s the part nobody wants to hear from a Vols fan: Texas beat us 20-17, and Texas is ahead of us in the AP poll. Good. That’s how it’s supposed to work. You beat a team with the same record, you go ahead of them.
All I’m asking for is the same rule pointed the other direction. Common opponents are for teams that never played each other. Tennessee and Alabama played. October 17, Neyland Stadium, 26-10. It wasn’t close.
The committee’s next rankings come out Tuesday night. If the Vols are still behind Alabama after beating its No. 6 team by four touchdowns, somebody’s going to need a bigger pod.
Faders, who’s got the better case? Tell me on X at @fiveandafade.
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Jeremy Durham is a sports columnist for TriStar Daily and the founder of Five and a Fade.
