Updating Tennessee Football's bowl projections after the win at Kentucky

Tennessee Football’s 56-34 win at Kentucky Saturday night didn’t move the Vols any closer to the latest College Football Playoff projections. Instead, one bowl game prediction became more popular than the others.

On3’s Brett McMurphy, CBS Sports and Athlon all have Tennessee matching up against Nebraska in the ReliaQuest Bowl at Raymond James Stadium in Tampa on December 31. 

ESPN’s Mark Schlabach also has the Vols in the ReliaQuest Bowl, against Iowa. ESPN’s Kyle Bonagura has Tennessee and Pitt in the Duke’s Mayo Bowl. 

The other two projections are Tennessee-Michigan in the Citrus Bowl, from USA Today, and Tennessee-Louisville in the Gator Bowl, from Sports Illustrated.

Up Next: No. 14 Tennessee vs. No. 17 Oklahoma, Saturday, 7:30 p.m. ET, ABC

No. 14 Tennessee (6-2, 3-2) hosts No. 17 Oklahoma (6-2, 2-2) on Saturday night (7:30 p.m. Eastern Time, ABC) at Neyland Stadium. The Vols have four games left, with three at home, facing New Mexico State on November 15, going to Florida on November 22 and closing the regular-season schedule against Vanderbilt on November 29.

Winning out over the final four games on schedule would give Tennessee an 84% chance to make the College Football Playoff, according to ESPN’s Playoff Predictor. The Vols currently have a 23% chance to be a playoff team entering Saturday night’s game against Oklahoma. 

ESPN’s Matchup Predictor gives Tennessee a 63.3% chance to beat Oklahoma, a 64.2% chance to win at Florida on November 22 and a 61.1% chance to beat Vanderbilt in the regular-season finale in Knoxville on November 29. 

Tennessee, which opened on Sunday as a 3.5-point favorite against Oklahoma, is ranked No. 13 in ESPN’s Football Power Index, which predicts the Vols to finish 9-3. The Vols are No. 18 in ESPN’s SP+, ranked No. 2 on offense, No. 48 on defense and No. 10 on special teams.

ESPN’s current College Football Playoff projections

ESPN’s current projected College Football Playoff bracket has Ohio State, Indiana, Alabama and Texas A&M as the top four seeds, respectively. 

The first-round matchups would be No. 12 Memphis at No. 5 Georgia, No. 11 Georgia Tech at No. 6 Ole Miss, No. 10 BYU at No. 7 Miami and No. 9 Vanderbilt at No. 8 Oregon. 

The Memphis/Georgia winner would face No. 4 Texas A&M, the Georgia Tech/Ole Miss winner would face No. 3 Alabama, the BYU/Miami winner would face No. 2 Indiana and the Vanderbilt/Oregon winner would face No. 1 Ohio State.