Tennessee's College Football Playoff predictions and bowl projections entering Week 5

A month into the season and the bowl projections aren’t getting any clearer for Tennessee Football. ESPN’s Heather Dinich still has the Vols in her College Football Playoff projections, but elsewhere the predictions are all over the board. 

Dinich in her projection of the current top 12 for the playoff has Tennessee as a No. 10 seed, this time playing at No. 7 Oklahoma in the first round. 

“The selection committee considers how teams win — and how they lose — and the Vols have managed to do both as well as can be expected,” Dinich wrote earlier this week. “The committee isn’t going to penalize Tennessee for its 44-41 overtime loss to Georgia, though it will keep the Vols behind the Dawgs as long as their records are comparable. 

“And the season-opening win against Syracuse looks even better after the Orange won at Clemson on Saturday.”

As for the bowl projections, On3’s Brett McMurphy has Tennessee in the Reliaquest Bowl against Indiana. ESPN’s Mark Schlabach and Kyle Bonagura also have the Vols in the Reliaquest Bowl, with Schlabach going with a Tennessee-Iowa matchup and Bonagura projecting Tennessee-Illinois. 

CBS Sports has Tennessee in the Music City Bowl vs. Illinois and USA Today has the Vols facing Louisville in the Gator Bowl. 

Sports Illustrated has Tennessee in the Liberty Bowl against Kansas and Athlon has the Vols in the Citrus Bowl against Michigan.

ESPN’s latest College Football Playoff Projection

Miami is the new No. 1 in Heather Dinich’s ESPN projection, jumping past Ohio State. The Buckeyes are No. 2, ahead of No. 3 Georgia and No. 4 Florida State.

Next is an SEC logjam, with LSU at No. 5, Texas A&M at No. 6 and Oklahoma at No. 7. Oregon is No. 8, Penn State is No. 9 and Indiana is No. 11, with Texas Tech coming in at No. 12.

Dinich’s bracket has Memphis as the No. 12 seed, getting in as the projected American Conference champion. The Tigers, who beat Arkansas 32-31 on Saturday, would play at No. 5 LSU.

Texas Tech bumped up to the No. 11 seed as the projected Big 12 champ, going to No. 6 Texas A&M. No. 9 Penn State would go to No. 8 Oregon.

Projected CFP First Round: No. 10 Tennessee at No. 7 Oklahoma

The Memphis/LSU winner would play No. 4 Florida State, the Texas Tech/Texas A&M winner match up with No. 3 Georgia, the Tennessee/Oklahoma winner would face No. 2 Ohio State and the Penn State/Oregon winner would face No. 1 Miami.

Dinich and ESPN noted that Tennessee is still lacking a signature win, but added that Syracuse could be a top-25 team in the College Football Playoff rankings later this season. 

There are opportunities for signature wins later in the schedule, including at Alabama on October 18 and at home against Oklahoma on November 1.

“Tennessee earned a spot in the playoff last year … as an at-large team,” Dinich wrote, “and can do that again, but it can’t go 0-2 against Alabama and Oklahoma.”