Tennessee was ranked eight spots below Alabama in last week’s College Football Playoff rankings (UT was at No. 13 and Bama was at No. 5).

Both teams have two losses, and the Crimson Tide lost by 16 points to the Vols, but the committee felt like Alabama’s resume is so much better than Tennessee’s that the head-to-head result doesn’t come into play.

Tennessee beat No. 6 Kentucky by 28 points on Saturday night, so the Vols will undoubtedly make a big move in this week’s rankings (which will be revealed on Tuesday night on ESPN).

But how far will Tennessee move up? Will the Vols pass Alabama now that they have another top 10 win on their resume?

ESPN’s Greg McElroy reveals his top 12 College Football Playoff rankings

ESPN’s Greg McElroy weighed in on how he thinks the rankings should look this week.

McElroy has been one of Tennessee’s biggest advocates this season — he was high on the Vols before the season started — but UT fans aren’t going to love his updated rankings.

The former Alabama quarterback has the Crimson Tide at No. 3 and the Vols at No. 8 after this past weekend’s action.

“At number eight, we think it’ll be Tennessee,” said McElroy. “They’re 7-2 with three quality wins. Two of them are in our top 12, with Alabama by 16 points and Kentucky by 28 points. Its losses were by three to Texas at home and at South Carolina. Yes, Tennessee beat Alabama, and Alabama is a few spots ahead, and the committee chair said it himself that head-to-head is not going to come into play right now for those two teams because they’re not in the same pod. And I agree to an extent because if you look at Alabama’s losses, they came against teams that are ranked currently in the top 12. One of Tennessee’s did not.”

“At No. 3, we think it’ll be Alabama,” added McElroy. “They’re 7-2 with four quality wins at Kentucky, South Carolina, Texas A&M, and at LSU. Their losses are to Georgia by three at home and at Tennessee in convincing fashion. But you can look at Alabama and they were beat up in that Tennessee game. The committee overlooked it last week. I can’t imagine they don’t move up, given the performance that they had on the road (in a 31-13 win over LSU).”

I just don’t understand the logic here. Yes, Alabama has a good resume. I believe they should be ranked very close to Tennessee. If someone wants to put them a spot above Tennessee, I get it. I don’t agree, but I also understand that all kinds of arguments make sense for where teams should be ranked (those contradicting arguments are why I think the CFP rankings are dumb, but that’s another conversation).

But having Alabama five spots ahead of Tennessee? What are we doing here?

Alabama is going to have one win against a team in the top 12 while the Vols will likely have two (we’re assuming Kentucky is in the top 12 this week with two losses).

The Vols have lost two games to top 25 teams by a combined six points. Alabama has lost two games to top 25 teams by a combined 19 points.

There’s a lot of reaching involved if anyone is putting Alabama five spots over Tennessee. And McElroy giving Alabama credit for a “quality win” over Texas A&M, a team that is currently 4-5 but then ignoring Tennessee’s win over Auburn, a team that is currently 5-4 is absurd.

And look, I think McElroy is one of the best analysts in the business. We all have flaws, but he’s excellent at breaking down what’s happening on the field.

With that said, I think he’s missing the mark here and he’s letting the committee’s narrative influence his thinking.

Tennessee and Alabama both have two losses to teams with playoff-caliber rosters. The Vols beat the Crimson Tide by 16 points. There’s no need to make this difficult.