ESPN college football reporter floats the idea of a playoff matchup that Tennessee Vols fans definitely don't want
The College Football Playoff committee supposedly isn't going to make it a priority to avoid rematches when the final playoff brackets are revealed next month. That means that we could see rematches of games from earlier this season — such as Penn State vs Ohio State, or Indiana vs Ohio State, or Alabama vs Georgia, […]
The College Football Playoff committee supposedly isn't going to make it a priority to avoid rematches when the final playoff brackets are revealed next month.
That means that we could see rematches of games from earlier this season — such as Penn State vs Ohio State, or Indiana vs Ohio State, or Alabama vs Georgia, or Clemson vs Georgia.
Or the Tennessee Vols at Georgia.
That last one is a possibility that ESPN college football reporter Heather Dinich said on Tuesday that she's hoping to see.
"No, they will not do that, they won't try to avoid any rematches," said Dinich during an appearance on The Pat McAfee Show on Tuesday. "There will be no re-seeding….I want Indiana and Penn State to settle it on the field. I love that matchup. Because of these super-sized conferences and no divisions, Indiana doesn't play Penn State. They don't play Oregon. So how does that work itself out? And Tennessee would have to go to Georgia (in Dinich's projection) again? Listen, I'm all for it. Sign me up"
I don't think any Tennessee fan wants to see the Vols return to Athens in December for a playoff game. That's going to be a tough spot for any program to find success.
But beyond what Tennessee fans want, this is just a flat out silly take.
For starters, I don't love the idea of having rematches in the playoff. All of these teams have resumés that are very similar. Actively avoiding a rematch doesn't hurt the integrity of the rankings (not the committee seems worried about integrity as it is). Sliding a team up or down a slot to avoid a rematch is simple — the committee is just arbitrarily ranking these teams as it is.
All season we've heard about the Big 10 vs the ACC vs the SEC vs the Big 12. We would get zero answers in that debate with a matchup between Georgia and Tennessee. Send the Vols to Notre Dame or Indiana if you want to settle a debate. Let Georgia play SMU or Penn State. Avoiding a rematch in this scenario is easy and it would help solve the debates that have been raging for the last month.
Hopefully the committee completely ignores Dinich's comments, because it's not what would be best for the playoff or for the sport.