Joey Galloway spins Tennessee missing SEC title game as a positive after College Football Playoff rankings

Only one spot separates No. 7 Georgia and No. 8 Tennessee in the latest College Football Playoff rankings. The Bulldogs beat the Volunteers head to head, making the delineation between the two squads a likely straightforward task.

But at least one ESPN personality thinks that the lower-ranked Volunteers are in a better position. By not having to play in the SEC title game — Georgia will face the winner of Texas and Texas A&M — Joey Galloway thinks Tennessee has navigated to an actually preferable spot.

The Volunteers simple need to win the regular season finale to finish 10-2, and an at-large bid should be sewn up. And with a few results falling the right way ahead of them, Tennessee could even host a playoff game at Neyland Stadium.

“If I’m Tennessee, I’m happy that I’m at No. 8 and not having to play in the SEC championship game. Georgia’s going to have to play Texas or Texas A&M, have another game on their schedule, some more movement. If you’re Tennessee, now you’re sitting there like, ‘Hey, we’re in this thing. Win another game, we’re in there.'”

The committee has made clear it does not want to punish a team for a conference title game loss, and given the head-to-head result, Georgia might stay ahead of Tennessee in the pecking order even with another loss in the conference title game.

But Galloway’s point also speaks to the notion of getting an extra week of rest, despite missing out on the shot at a bye. And an at large, as previously mentioned, means Tennessee could theoretically host.

It’s also a point that current Ole Miss head coach Lane Kiffin has made, that it could be beneficial to avoid playing an extra game that could just as likely hurt playoff prospects as help them. Evidently, Kiffin is not the only person to make this analysis.

Which is all to say, there are certainly some perks to being where the Volunteers are, even if there’s a narrow margin for error.