Tennessee Vols receive added proof that they're getting robbed by the College Football Playoff committee
The Tennessee Vols probably won't be hosting a College Football Playoff game in Neyland Stadium later this month. Tennessee is penciled in as the No. 9 seed in the latest playoff rankings, which means they'd play at Ohio State in the first round. There are a couple of different scenarios that could still play out […]
The Tennessee Vols probably won't be hosting a College Football Playoff game in Neyland Stadium later this month.
Tennessee is penciled in as the No. 9 seed in the latest playoff rankings, which means they'd play at Ohio State in the first round.
There are a couple of different scenarios that could still play out that would give the Vols a home playoff game — Penn State getting blown out by Oregon in the Big 10 Championship game and slipping below Tennessee is probably UT's best chance — but for now, the matchup against Ohio State in Columbus seems most likely for Tennessee.
I think that matchup should be flipped. I think Tennessee, as a two-loss SEC team, has a case to be above Ohio State — especially since Georgia (which lost to Alabama, a team that UT beat) is above the Buckeyes in the latest rankings.
The biggest reason why I think the Vols should host a playoff game over the Buckeyes is because Tennessee went undefeated at home this season while Ohio State lost to Michigan at home (in the final regular season game) as a 20 point favorite.
How you play at home should matter — especially when it comes to awarding home playoff games. It's a data point that the playoff committee seems to be blatantly ignoring.
To be fair, I see Ohio State's side of the argument. In the committee's eyes, the Buckeyes have better wins than Tennessee. Maybe it's a coin flip when it comes to resumés.
Either way, it's a close debate. In fact, the AP Top 25 poll this week had Tennessee one spot above Ohio State.
The top 11 of this week's playoff rankings are the exact same as the top 11 in the AP Top 25 poll.
Except for Tennessee and Ohio State. Those are the only teams that were flipped in the playoff rankings.
The committee is in lock step with the AP Top 25 poll except for flipping Ohio State and Tennessee. And that's a big deal since that outlier of a decision by the committee steals a home playoff game from the Vols.
These rankings have been all over the place the last few weeks. The playoff committee seems to spawn a new personality each week, arbitrarily moving teams around based on whatever data point they can use to justify it while completely ignoring those same data points in other cases.
Tennessee deserves a home game after defending home field as well as anyone in the country this season. They're absolutely getting hosed with this decision by the committee.
