Tennessee AD Danny White: 'It's been way too long' since Vols were in title race down stretch

No. 3 Tennessee rocked the college football world last weekend with a 52-49 upset of now-No. 6 Alabama, entering the College Football Playoff picture in a major way with the massive win in Knoxville, Tenn.

For athletics director Danny White, the win was a quick realization of the vision he had when he hired head coach Josh Heupel. The Volunteers will be playing for an SEC East division title over the next few weeks, with games against No. 19 Kentucky and No. 1 Georgia looming.

“It’s been way too long,” White told the SEC Network broadcast crew while joining them in the booth during Saturday’s game against UT-Martin. “This is obviously the kind of football we want to be playing. Late in the season you want to be playing meaningful games. Just excited about the opportunities we have ahead of us.”

With UT-Martin handled easily in the first half on Saturday, White and the Volunteers faithful had the chance to look ahead early.

Tennessee led 52-7 at the break, quickly shaking off any possible malaise following the big win over ‘Bama.

The Volunteers are currently a half game back from Georgia in the SEC East, sporting a 3-0 conference mark, just one win shy of the 4-0 record the Bulldogs have at the moment. The two will meet on Nov. 5 and at least some are already envisioning a scenario where the SEC produces multiple playoff teams this year.

Tennessee in playoff picture, could three SEC teams get in?

With multiple Power 5 conferences now down to just one unbeaten team, there’s the potential for some serious chaos in this year’s playoff race.

TCU is the lone unbeaten in the Big 12, while UCLA is the lone unbeaten now in the Pac-12. The ACC is also be down to one unbeaten team following Clemson‘s win over Syracuse on Saturday.

An upset here or there and there could easily produce a scenario where the Big Ten or the SEC gets multiple playoff teams. Possibly even three?

That was a question the broadcast booth posed to White.

“It’s going to be interesting to see how things play out, obviously a lot of football to be played,” White said. “But we could find ourselves in that circumstance. We have probably three or four contenders probably for a potential playoff across the Southeastern Conference. Obviously a really tough conference, and it’ll be interesting to see how it all unfolds.”

Tennessee’s run at the SEC East will continue next weekend with a home game at night against No. 19 Kentucky. The Volunteers will travel to face No. 1 Georgia on Nov. 5.