CBS Sports made a wacky college football power rankings decision involving Tennessee and Alabama

I’ve seen a lot of bizarre rankings involving the Tennessee Vols over the 12 plus years I’ve written about the program. But what I saw this week may be the most bizarre ranking I’ve ever seen. CBS Sports’ Tom Fornelli revealed his updated college football power rankings on Tuesday and he made a decision that […]

Zach Ragan — Tennessee Volunteers News Writer
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I’ve seen a lot of bizarre rankings involving the Tennessee Vols over the 12 plus years I’ve written about the program.

But what I saw this week may be the most bizarre ranking I’ve ever seen.

CBS Sports’ Tom Fornelli revealed his updated college football power rankings on Tuesday and he made a decision that I can’t wrap my head around.

Fornelli has Tennessee at No. 12 in his power rankings, which I think is more than fair. I think Tennessee is a good team based on what we saw from the Vols in their heartbreaking overtime loss to the Georgia Bulldogs. We’ll find out how good they are as the season progresses — it’s still very early.

What’s bizarre is where Fornelli has Alabama ranked — at No. 5!?!?!

How can anyone justify ranking Alabama at No. 5???

I don’t see any way that anyone in the industry can justify putting Alabama at No. 5.

This is a team that underachieved last season under a head coach that continues to get the benefit of the doubt from the national media (it’s cool what Kalen DeBoer accomplished at Washington, but that doesn’t mean a thing when it comes to being in the SEC where you have to play the top competition in the sport on a weekly basis).

Last year doesn’t matter, though, when it comes to this year.

And this year, Alabama has done, well, not much.

Alabama lost its season-opener to a Florida State team that won two games last season. We don’t know how good the Seminoles are this season because their other two wins to this point are against Kent State and East Texas A&M. Everyone is operating under the assumption that Florida State is elite because they beat Alabama. Maybe that’s the case. But maybe Alabama just isn’t very good.

(Fornelli wrote that Alabama’s loss to Florida State “looks more excusable every week” — I guess he has a lot of respect for Kent State and East Texas A&M.)

After all, what proof do we have that Bama is good? They lost as favorites to a Florida State team that doesn’t have any other good wins yet. The Crimson Tide destroyed Louisiana-Monroe 73-0. That’s good, I guess. And then they beat Wisconsin 38-14 at home.

Wisconsin then lost at home to Maryland by 17 points. Suffice it to say, I don’t think the Badgers are very good.

So where is Alabama’s great performance? What makes them worthy of being power ranked at No. 5? Is is the A on their logo? That’s the only thing that makes any sense.

I’ll never understand the national media’s obsession with Alabama. It’s like they forgot about the few seasons before Nick Saban arrived. Alabama is capable of being a not good program. Believe it or not, simply walking onto the field in Alabama uniforms doesn’t automatically make you a great team. You gotta go earn it every week. Alabama hasn’t earned that status yet this season, but folks like Fornelli simply don’t care. They just love them some Bama.

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