First, there’s no certainty Arkansas beats Mississippi State the following week just because they beat Tennessee. Second, a loss to Arkansas almost certainly drops Tennessee behind both Ohio State and Florida State in the human polls, which were the by far biggest factor in the early BCS days. Even if Tennessee avenges that loss in Atlanta, there’s no guarantee the voters move them back ahead of OSU and FSU. The SEC was a good league in 1998, but it didn’t have the same cachet it had from 08-22, so a one-loss SEC champ wasn’t automatically getting the benefit of the doubt.