Most folks outside of Tuscaloosa believe Tennessee should be ranked above Alabama in the College Football Playoff rankings.

The Vols and the Crimson Tide have the same record, and Tennessee beat Alabama by 16 points a few weeks ago.

College Football Playoff committee chairman Hunter Yurachek, however, says Alabama is ranked higher because the Crimson Tide have a tougher schedule.

“Tennessee’s got a couple of quality wins in the win they just had against Kentucky and obviously the win they had against Alabama,” said Yurachek. “They’ve got three wins against teams that their schedule strength is 110 and above. So when you look at their schedule compared to Alabama’s schedule, the committee feels like — and the metrics feel — that Alabama’s got a stronger schedule.”

I think the committee is leaning way too hard into metrics instead of watching games and using common sense. But this is how they’re approaching it, so it is what it is.

Alabama and Tennessee actually have several common opponents (South Carolina, Kentucky, Texas A&M, LSU, Auburn, and Vanderbilt), but the Crimson Tide had Georgia and Mississippi State (which is a win the committee really likes) while the Vols had Arkansas and Texas. For some reason, the committee is seriously dinging Tennessee for the Arkansas win and giving Alabama a ton of credit for the Mississippi State win (even though Mississippi State quarterback Kamario Taylor was already injured when the Bulldogs played Alabama).

Another win that’s definitely not helping the Vols like we all thought it would is the early-season road win against Georgia Tech.

When that game was scheduled in early 2025, it was viewed as a tough road game that would help Tennessee’s College Football Playoff resume.

But that isn’t the case at all. In fact, it’s hurting the Vols’ resume.

Georgia Tech is 2-7 and with games remaining against Clemson, Wake Forest, and Georgia, there’s a very real chance they finish 2-10.

That went from being a nice road win for the Volunteers to being a blemish on their resume.

It’s unfortunate because Georgia Tech is usually a tough competitive team. If they were having an average year in the ACC, they’d be around 6-3 right now (and in the range of teams like Pittsburgh, Virginia Tech, Louisville, and Clemson).

Instead, the Yellow Jackets have been one of the worst Power-4 teams in the nation (On3’s Brett McMurphy named Georgia Tech as the ACC’s biggest underachiever this week).

Again, if Georgia Tech was just average — 6-3 or 5-4 — maybe that would boost the Vols’ metrics enough to get them in the same “pod” as Alabama, at which point the head-to-head result would come into play for the committee.

I think the way the committee is approaching this is nonsensical, but using their logic, it’s easy to see that the Georgia Tech game, which looked like a tough game before the season, is a big reason why Tennessee isn’t in the same “pod” as Alabama.

And that, of course, is ridiculous — it’s not Tennessee’s fault that Georgia Tech is having a terrible year.