Could An 8-5 Vols Slide Into the Top 25?

[VolnJC]

At the end of last season there were 6 teams with four losses (Texas finished 9th and A&M was 16th) and 1 five loss team (Northwestern 21st) in the final top 25 poll so it wouldn't be a stretch if the Vols can keep winning. Would be a great way to end the season and hopefully build on it in 2020.

 

[DC_Vol]

Not with losses to GA state and BYU.

 

[Notorious B.E.N]

If we're 8-5, meaning 7-1 in the last 8, i think the voters would see that we're playing really well and would give us votes, jmo.

 

[VFL-82-JP]

Super doubtful we end ranked this year, even at 8-5. Super doubtful.


Explained why in an earlier thread -- here's that post:

Okay, so our chance of being ranked at any point this season (including post-bowl) is pretty much zero.

Here's why:

1. Teams with five losses generally don't make the polls. Looking back over the years, each final AP poll includes either one single -5 loss team...or none at all. In the past decade, there has never been a final AP poll that included two -5 loss teams.
2. Most of those rare -5 loss teams who did make it into the final poll first played in their conference championship match. Which means, they got 14 total games (12 regular season, 1 title game, 1 bowl game). And 9-5 with a championship game appearance looks a lot more respectable to the poll voters than 8-5.
3. The only two teams to make it into the final AP poll of the last ten years with an 8-5 record were Auburn in '16, and Michigan in '12. But both those teams were ranked in the top 10 earlier in the season, so already had the attention of the poll voters as "one of the teams to watch."

The Vols will have none of those advantages. If we win out in the regular season, we'll go into the bowls with a 7-5 record, just one game over even. We won't get the benefit of a championship contest to get attention. And with a 7-5 record, we'll likely play a bowl against some other team that is also 7-5 (or maybe 8-4), which means they also will not be ranked. So no huge kudos for beating them.

No, the polls are not our friends this year. Have to save that for 2020 and beyond.

Nevertheless...Go Vols!

It would be nice, but...almost certainly not going to happen. We have to look to 2020 and beyond for rankings.

Go Vols!

 

[lukeneyland]

Probably depends on who we beat in the bowl game

 

[SalVolinus]

Probably depends on who we beat in the bowl game

This. If we got a ranked B1G team and housed them like we usually do, I think we end up ranked.

If we play another 7-5 or 6-6 squad it won't really grab voter attention.

It would be cool to finish ranked, but honestly I'd love to just see us get to 6 wins.

 

[Tennesseefan2019]

I think Tennessee will be in the #26-#30 range with an 8-5 record. I'm looking forward to seeing Tennessee in the 2020 Preseason Top 25 Polls of Athlon,Sporting News,Sports Illustrated,College Football News and other internet college football websites!

 

[TBtheGBwiththeTD]

Tennessee will 100% be ranked in the final poll if they run the table including a bowl win. They will likely have to beat a ranked team in a bowl

 

[DiderotsGhost]

It's very rare to see a 5 loss team ranked.

We'd probably end up in the "other receiving votes" category in the AP poll, around 27th to 35th if we were to go 8-5.

 

[Tennesseefan2019]

Tennessee will 100% be ranked in the final poll if they run the table including a bowl win. They will likely have to beat a ranked team in a bowl

I think Tennessee will play Iowa in the TaxSlayer Gator Bowl and Iowa will be ranked #20-#25

 

[Tennesseefan2019]

ESPN's Bonagura thinks 7-5 Tennessee will play 7-5 Illinois in the TaxSlayer Gator Bowl while ESPN's Schlabach thinks 7-5 Tennessee will play 8-4 Iowa in the TaxSlayer Gator Bowl.

 

[jerrync]

Tennessee will 100% be ranked in the final poll if they run the table including a bowl win. They will likely have to beat a ranked team in a bowl

They will be rated, but not in the top 25. Much lower. GO VOLS

 

[VolFanNC09]

No, but it sets us up next year to be preseason top 25.

 

[Kinglberry]

No

 

[DonDiego]

My prediction, 8-5 and #25. Woooo!

 

[JohnWardForever]

One game at a time; please. The rankings take care of themselves. IF you watched the Uk game, you woulda seen that Ut has a WAYS to go before being a top 25 team. A WAYS.

 

[Cdywolfe]

I’m not sure if we will be ranked but if we win out I will have little doubt that we’ll be finishing the season as one of the 25 best teams.

 

[tennesseeduke]

At the end of last season there were 6 teams with four losses (Texas finished 9th and A&M was 16th) and 1 five loss team (Northwestern 21st) in the final top 25 poll so it wouldn't be a stretch if the Vols can keep winning. Would be a great way to end the season and hopefully build on it in 2020.

No but we will be preseason top 25 next year if we finish with 6 straight and 7 of 8.

 

[dougvolfan]

We need to go to Missouri and win first. I think we tear candy a new one.

 

[arkyvol]

Let's worry about the next game; the polls will take care of themselves.

 

[Gandalf]

8-5 would give us a solid shot at being ranked. Especially if we stomp someone decent in the Gator Bowl.

Note that final AP rankings - there are plenty of 5 loss teams, usually 1 per year and 8-5 records one out of three years. So quite possible IF we win out and hammer the bowl game but certainly not a given.

 

[FLVOL_79]

If Navy and Iowa are ranked...anything is possible.

 

[tennrich1]

I guess I’m not comfortable with this discussion yet. Missouri has been the game that bothers me. Missouri is a different team at home and I think it’ll be a slug fest worst than Kentucky. Hopefully they will have given up on the season by then but for us to win our OL will have to run block a lot better than we saw last night. They did fine with the throw game blocking but we finally basically quit trying to run the ball which probably was smart. Of course the fumble really capped the horrendous night of our run game. And Trey gotta quit that “off the top ropes” late hitting action. It absolutely KILLED us on that drive!

 

[82_VOL_83]

If we finish 8-5, who cares if we are ranked. We have to beat Misery first.

 

[I40flyer]

There will be a few 3 or 4 three loss teams in the top 25, we won't be close to top 25. As for Next season, preseason guessing, unless we get our QB situation cemented we aren't going to be getting a lot of "extra" votes. We'll see. I recall early in the season, several posters on this very board (really true experts) screaming about Florida. They contended that FL was not a top ten team, should not be in the top 20-and by this time in the season they would be ranked so for down the line people would forget how to spell Florida-so, I guess speculation on rankings is a crap shoot. Rankings will take care of themselves, I'd rather be talking about who we are going to beat next season and why.