The Tennessee Vols were essentially eliminated from the College Football Playoff last weekend.

Tennessee fell to 6-3 on the season after a 33-27 loss to the Oklahoma Sooners.

It’s unlikely that a three loss team will be included in the College Football Playoff. So while the Vols technically haven’t been mathematically eliminated from playoff contention, they would need a lot of chaos to happen over the next few weeks to have a real chance to sneak into the playoff.

Tennessee’s postseason outlook following the loss to Oklahoma has led to a fascinating debate about college football and how teams approach the rest of the season once reaching the playoff is no longer on the table.

It feels like most fans and big-time programs (Penn State and LSU, for example) have a playoff or bust mentality. And that’s a dangerous precedent to set — “playoff or bust” simply isn’t a realistic expectation for programs (outside of a handful of outliers) in this current era of college football.

Voice of the Vols Mike Keith drops some truth about Tennessee that all college football fans need to hear

Voice of the Vols Mike Keith joined 104.5 The Zone’s Ramon and Will on Friday and he dropped some truth about Tennessee — and college football in general — that all fans of the sport need to hear.

“College football is now a tournament sport,” said Keith. “And so losing one game doesn’t cost you anything. It used to be that if Tennessee lost to Florida in Week 3, to a certain extent, their season was over. Because then Florida would have to lose twice, or else Tennessee couldn’t go to the SEC championship game.”

“When Tennessee lost to Georgia in Week 3, it was disappointing, but it wasn’t the end of the season. But it also meant that the game against Oklahoma, to a certain extent, it was called a playoff elimination game. And maybe it was. Maybe it wasn’t. But it did have that feel.”

“Listen, everybody in this building — I’m in the football complex right now — everybody in this building, I just walked in and I see people working hard right now,” continued Keith. “What I can tell you about this is Josh Heupel wants to go the playoff every year. Everybody on his coaching staff wants to go to the playoff every year. Danny White wants to go to the playoff every year. Everybody on his staff wants to go to the playoff every year. That’s the expectation at Tennessee.”

“Tennessee wants to be one of those schools in the mix. But also, there is a realism that that’s (going to the playoff every year) not going to happen. Because guess what? LSU wants to go to the playoff every year. And Georgia does, and Florida does, and Alabama does, and Texas A&M, and Texas. I mean, that’s who you compete with on a weekly basis in this conference. Where you have to put yourself is you’ve got to be somewhere in the mix every year, and then in certain cases, you’re going to have special teams with special people.”

“You can’t do that if you’re not in the mix,” added Keith. “Sometimes being in the mix is better than others. But where Tennessee is right now, they are certainly in the mix. Are there things that they have to improve upon? Absolutely. I mean, it’s not been Tennessee’s year from the standpoint of luck. Their best defensive player hasn’t played all year. They’ve had a couple things go against them in games. They’ve had a couple of mistakes that have beaten them.”

“They literally were a kick away from beating Georgia. And so how does the season change then? Is that an indictment on your overall program? If he makes that kick is your program any better than it is right now? Or any worse? That’s the difficult part. Here’s where Tennessee is right now. Tennessee is where Phillip Fulmer was in the mid 90s. And that is they’re figuring out that going from good to very good, in that range, to great to elite, that next step is really, really hard. But I sure rather would be good to very good than to be trying to come from where they were five years ago.”

I couldn’t agree with Keith more. It’s easier than ever for a program to be in the championship conversation, thanks to the ability to quickly improve rosters from year to year. At the same time, it’s harder than ever to take the final step from being very good to truly elite. The parity in the sport is unlike anything we’ve seen before. As a result, the difference between winning and losing each Saturday in the fall often comes down to a single play or two. The margins are razor-thin. At this point, very few outcomes between Power-4 programs would be considered shocking (if No. 22 Missouri beats No. 3 Texas A&M this weekend, for example, it would be surprising, but not shocking).

Expectations should be a dirty word in this current era of college football.

The national media is placing expectations on teams all summer long while having no idea what most of these teams will actually look like. How can we place expectations on a team with a transfer quarterback that’s never played for that team? Or how about a team that’s replacing 75 percent of its starters with freshmen and transfers? There’s just too much roster and coaching movement from year to year to have a solid idea (in most cases) of how each season will play out.

But yet coaches are getting fired because they didn’t meet expectations that were probably never fair (again, in most cases — every situation different…I think we all get that LSU had to fire Brian Kelly, for example, due to how toxic the situation became).

Every teams wants to make the College Football Playoff, but only 12 teams do (for now). There are going to be programs from season to season that, for various reasons, simply aren’t in a position to reach the playoff that given year. And that has to be okay with fans. If a team doesn’t hit on the right quarterback, or deals with too many injuries to truly contend, it doesn’t mean the coach needs to be fired. It just means that things (including some things that are out of a team’s control) didn’t go their way that year. That’s sports. It’s the way it’s always been and it’s the way it always will be. And firing coaches because of a down year or because of bad luck isn’t going to change that.

This article was originally published on A to Z Sports Tennessee Vols as Voice of the Vols Mike Keith drops some truth about Tennessee that all college football fans need to hear.

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