College Football Playoff reveal crew breaks down Tennessee ranking behind Alabama

by:Austin Brezina•11/29/22•

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After revealing the penultimate College Football Playoff rankings, the reveal broadcast team explained how Tennessee was below Alabama. Both programs were sitting at two losses on the season, and the Volunteers appeared to have a claim to the higher spot after defeating the Crimson Tide during the season.

According to the ESPN CFP reveal crew of Rece Davis, Joey Galloway and David Pollack — the rankings putting Alabama at No. 6 and Tennessee at No. 7 made sense to them when you factor in the current state of both teams.

Tennessee trailing Alabama in CFP rankings

“Now what this means is that Tennessee is behind Alabama, who they beat. Which is infuriating to Volunteer fans I’m sure. But there’s also the issue that they don’t have their starting quarterback anymore with Hendon Hooker being injured,” said Davis after it was revealed that Tennessee was seventh in the nation.

“And I think that is exactly what has happened here,” said Galloway. “Hendon Hooker is no longer there, and so their resume — as strong as it is and the terrific season they had — without Hendon Hooker do you think they do the same thing with that resume? I don’t think they do, but I understand why they’re ranked behind Bama in this situation.”

“I don’t think they do either, but we did see them play. So I think you could say we saw them go head-to-head, we saw Tennessee beat them. So I wouldn’t be upset if Tennessee was ahead of them. Honestly, not in the slightest bit,” added David Pollack.

Although it’s not the final rankings of the year, knowing that neither team has a game left to play this week seems to show that Tennessee’s chances of finishing the year as the third-highest ranked team in the SEC are set in stone. With LSU still to play Georgia in the SEC Championship Game, there remains an outside chance that they could rally back up the rankings despite having three losses — although the season will likely finish with Alabama and Tennessee just outside of the CFP picture.