The Tennessee Vols learned their College Football Playoff fate on Sunday afternoon.
Tennessee will be the No. 9 seed in the bracket which means they’ll head to Columbus for a matchup against the Ohio State Buckeyes.
The Vols were ranked below four teams in the playoff — Penn State, Notre Dame, Texas, and Ohio State — that they could’ve easily been ranked ahead of.
Ohio State has two losses and two wins against playoff teams (Indiana and Penn State) — albeit two playoff teams that don’t have a “great” win.
Notre Dame has the worst loss in college football (at home against Northern Illinois).
Texas doesn’t have a win against a ranked team.
And Penn State’s best win was against Illinois. Considering that Indiana and Penn State have a similar resumé, it’s hard to explain how the Nittany Lions are the No. 6 seed while Indiana, which has one less loss than Penn State, is the No. 10 seed.
The biggest reason why Tennessee is below these teams is because of a five point road loss to Arkansas.
That’s certainly a rough look for the Vols’ resumé, but other aspects of Tennessee’s resumé (like wins against Alabama and Florida, a team that knocked out Ole Miss) are valuable enough to create an argument that the Vols should’ve been awarded a home game.
So why didn’t Tennessee get the benefit of the doubt over at least one of these teams?
This might be a bit too conspiracy theory for some folks, but it feels like this is punishment for the state of Tennessee’s lawsuit against the NCAA, which rendered the NCAA powerless when it comes to enforcing NIL rules against programs.
The Vols stood up to the NCAA and won. And as a result, it looks like Tennessee, which was deserving of a home game, will be forced to play on the road in the first round of the playoff.
(No the playoff committee isn’t the NCAA, but it’s made up of members who could certainly be strongly influenced by the NCAA and conference commissioners.)
Maybe that’s not the case at all. Maybe the committee is as misguided as most folks believe them to be. But dismissing the lawsuit theory as nonsense wouldn’t be wise. The NCAA has been accused of corruption for years, why should we suddenly believe that they’re not capable of silently punishing Tennessee for standing up to them?
The Vols were ranked below four teams in the playoff — Penn State, Notre Dame, Texas, and Ohio State — that they could’ve easily been ranked ahead of.
Ohio State has two losses and two wins against playoff teams (Indiana and Penn State) — albeit two playoff teams that don’t have a “great” win.
Notre Dame has the worst loss in college football (at home against Northern Illinois).
Texas doesn’t have a win against a ranked team.
And Penn State’s best win was against Illinois. Considering that Indiana and Penn State have a similar resumé, it’s hard to explain how the Nittany Lions are the No. 6 seed while Indiana, which has one less loss than Penn State, is the No. 10 seed.
The biggest reason why Tennessee is below these teams is because of a five point road loss to Arkansas.
That’s certainly a rough look for the Vols’ resumé, but other aspects of Tennessee’s resumé (like wins against Alabama and Florida, a team that knocked out Ole Miss) are valuable enough to create an argument that the Vols should’ve been awarded a home game.
So why didn’t Tennessee get the benefit of the doubt over at least one of these teams?
This might be a bit too conspiracy theory for some folks, but it feels like this is punishment for the state of Tennessee’s lawsuit against the NCAA, which rendered the NCAA powerless when it comes to enforcing NIL rules against programs.
The Vols stood up to the NCAA and won. And as a result, it looks like Tennessee, which was deserving of a home game, will be forced to play on the road in the first round of the playoff.
(No the playoff committee isn’t the NCAA, but it’s made up of members who could certainly be strongly influenced by the NCAA and conference commissioners.)
Maybe that’s not the case at all. Maybe the committee is as misguided as most folks believe them to be. But dismissing the lawsuit theory as nonsense wouldn’t be wise. The NCAA has been accused of corruption for years, why should we suddenly believe that they’re not
