Sports Illustrated’s Pat Forde isn’t very popular among Tennessee Vols fans.

Forde has taken some shots at the Tennessee program over the years — something that hasn’t always sat well with Vols fans (or businesses they run).

We're just an inanimate convenience store, but one of our customers this morning said that you should "stick to covering swimming" and we wanted to pass that along because we're helpful like that.

— Weigel's (@weigelsstores) January 31, 2024

We believe in giving credit where it’s due. So if we’re going to point out the bad from Forde, we gotta point out the good, too.

And believe it or not, there was some good this week.

Forde revealed his first College Football Playoff bracket of the season and he included the Vols as the No. 6 seed.

Now, it’s worth pointing out that Forde’s bracket is unique in that he bases it only on what’s happened this season, and not on preseason rankings (which I very much appreciate — preseason rankings are clouded by group think and reputation).

In Forde’s initial bracket, Tennessee would host Notre Dame in the first round.

• No. 12 South Florida at No. 5 Auburn
• No. 11 Notre Dame at No. 6 Tennessee 
• No. 10 Texas at No. 7 TCU
• No. 9 Utah at No. 8 Georgia Tech

First-round byes:

• No. 4 Florida State, would play winner of South Florida–Auburn in the Cotton Bowl
• No. 3 Miami, would play winner of Notre Dame–Tennessee in the Orange Bowl 
• No. 2 LSU, would play winner of Texas-TCU in the Sugar Bowl
• No. 1 Ohio State, would play winner of Utah–Georgia Tech in the Rose Bowl

Tennessee will host East Tennessee State in Week 2. We’ll see if a convincing win is enough to keep the Vols in Forde’s CFP bracket next week.

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