Tennessee Vols senior linebacker Arion Carter will be suspended for the first two games of the season over a frivolous NCAA violation.

Carter will miss the season-opener against Furman and a Week 2 matchup on the road against Georgia Tech.

Missing the Furman game obviously isn’t a big deal. But not having Carter — who is one of the best athletes on the team — against Georgia Tech will be a big loss.

Some fans and analysts have suggested that Tennessee should play Carter anyway — essentially giving the NCAA the finger.

It took me a week to cool down enough to discuss Arion Carter's NCAA suspension publicly

I'd play him anyway pic.twitter.com/S94rorNQWD

— Josh Pate (@JoshPateCFB) August 5, 2026

I totally get it. And I’d be all for it. But I don’t think it’s a viable option.

It may not be the expectation this season, but everyone in Tennessee’s program wants to make the College Football Playoff. And playing a suspended Carter would put that in jeopardy.

The NCAA doesn’t oversee the College Football Playoff, so technically playing Carter wouldn’t automatically disqualify Tennessee from consideration.

But the selection committee could choose to recognize the suspension and keep Tennessee out.

And I think that’s probably what they’d do.

I mean, in college basketball, one NCAA selection committee member is already threatening to punish programs that play players deemed ineligible by the NCAA (in this case, I believe they’re referring to fifth-year players who were ruled ineligible by the NCAA but ruled eligible by a recent court ruling).

One member of NCAA tournament selection committee to @TheFieldOf68:

“The NCAA may not be able to threaten teams that use players deemed ineligible by the NCAA, but I can penalize them and so can other committee members if they want, whether it’s by seeding or even not including…

— Jeff Goodman (@GoodmanHoops) August 17, 2026

The College Football Playoff committee, just like the NCAA Tournament selection committee, is made up of sitting athletic directors and others that are in college sports. I don’t think it’s a stretch to suggest that both committees will take a similar approach.

But regardless of what I think, or what anyone thinks, there’s no clarity from the committee on how they’d view it, so is it a gamble worth taking? Probably not (the committee hasn’t even provided clarity on how they’ll view the SEC’s new nine game conference schedule).

Unless something crazy happens, I don’t see any way Carter gets out of his two-game suspension.