Tennessee fans are still perplexed at the College Football Playoff committee’s decision to place Alabama at No. 5 in the first playoff rankings of the year while the Vols got slotted in at No. 13.

The two programs have the same record (6-2) and the Vols own a convincing 26-10 win over the Crimson Tide.

Alabama’s résumé, however, got a huge boost thanks to their win over Mississippi State earlier this season.

And that boost was large enough that, in the committee’s eyes, it created a gap big enough between the two programs that Tennessee’s head-to-head win over Alabama wasn’t factored in.

“I think many forget that [Alabama] went on the road and beat Mississippi State when Mississippi State was undefeated and at full strength,” said committee chairman Hunter Yurachek on ESPN after the rankings were revealed. “And we really valued that as a strong win for Alabama back there in the early part of the season when Mississippi State had that quarterback, Kamario Taylor, that was very good, and Mississippi State was on a roll at that time.”

“Tennessee doesn’t have the same level of quality wins. They do have the win against Alabama, but you have to go a little bit deeper to see Tennessee with another quality win on their schedule.”

Yurachek forgot to note that Mississippi State quarterback Kamario Taylor was already hurt before the Alabama game. But nonetheless, that’s why they have Alabama that far above Tennessee (I offered some expanded thoughts on the way the committee is disrespecting the Vols’ win over Auburn).

Regardless of how anyone feels about the reasoning for the rankings, the fact of the matter is that this is Tennessee’s reality (we all know it’s silly).

Now, here’s the good news for Tennessee.

ESPN’s Rece Davis pointed out on the College GameDay podcast that if Tennessee beats Kentucky (No. 6 in the rankings) on Saturday, then they’ll almost certainly close the gap and be in the same “pod” as Alabama (even if Alabama beats LSU on Saturday).

“Let’s say Tennessee wins against Kentucky, and Alabama wins against LSU,” said Davis. “Tennessee’s win over Kentucky — by virtue of where they have Kentucky ranked — will almost certainly be impressive enough to get Tennessee considered in the same group with Alabama.”

At that point, based on the precedent the committee has set in the past, Tennessee would have to jump Alabama (based on the head-to-head result).

We’ll see if the committee actually does that, though. The first rankings show that you can’t trust this committee to do the right thing.

Tennessee, meanwhile, just has to focus on beating Kentucky this weekend. Otherwise, none of this matters.