National media outlet ranks hardest paths in College Football Playoff; Where the Tennessee Vols' path to a natty ranks
Earlier this week, CBS Sports ranked the toughest paths to the College Football Playoff finals and it highlights an issue that needs to be addressed before the 2025 season. The Tennessee Vols are ranked No. 7 in the College Football Playoff rankings, but they were pushed down to the No. 9 seed because of automatic […]
Earlier this week, CBS Sports ranked the toughest paths to the College Football Playoff finals and it highlights an issue that needs to be addressed before the 2025 season.
The Tennessee Vols are ranked No. 7 in the College Football Playoff rankings, but they were pushed down to the No. 9 seed because of automatic byes for the top four ranked conference champions.
As a result, Tennessee will play on the road against Ohio State in the first round of the playoff. If the Vols manage to get a win in Columbus, their reward will be a matchup with No. 1 Oregon in the quarterfinals.
CBS Sports ranked the Vols' path to the finals as the hardest path of any team in the 12-team playoff.
From CBS Sports: Tennessee plays its first College Football Playoff game in program history at Ohio State, which is an extremely difficult task in a vacuum. Then you consider how bad the Vols have been in truly hostile environments under coach Josh Heupel. During the 2024 regular season, they lost on the road against an Arkansas team that finished 3-5 in SEC play and then by 14 points at Georgia. Tennessee also went 1-3 on the road in 2023, including losses to unranked Florida and a 29-point defeat against Missouri. If Tennessee gets past Ohio State, it has to travel three time zones to play top-seeded Oregon in the Rose Bowl. Not to mention the fact that Texas, Clemson and Arizona State — two conference championship winners and a preseason national title favorite — loom as potential semifinal matchups.
Penn State, which is the No. 6 seed in the playoff, has the easiest path in the playoff according to CBS Sports.
There are a lot of folks who felt like Tennessee had a better resumé than Penn State. Regardless of which side of that debate you fall on, there's no doubt that the debate was close. And yet Tennessee has the much more difficult path. How does that make any sense? CBS Sports thinks all of the teams ranked below Tennessee in the playoff committee's top 25 have an easier path!
It's an absurd setup. And Vols fans probably aren't shocked that Tennessee is the team that's getting the worst draw in the first 12-team playoff.
I wouldn't be surprised to see this flaw in the playoff bracket fixed before next season, but that will be too late to be a benefit to the Vols.
