Polls keeping us out of the playoffs

#52
#52
Calm down. Geez. If we take care of business against Bama in Tuscaloosa, we're assured of moving up a few spots. And if Oklahoma comes into Knoxville undefeated or with just a loss and we beat them, we'll move up with that. Mississippi State is a really good team, and we won on the road, but they are unranked. Georgia is the only ranked team we played. And Bama beating them doesn't make our loss at home to them look good right now. But if we win the games we should, and take care of business against Bama and Oklahoma, we'll definitely move up and be in the playoff hunt for sure.
Don't let any of these blow holes get to you. They speak opinions and probables as facts like they're experts and know something you don't. Lol, it's comical.

One thing everyone is right about, duh, is winning takes care of errthanges.

As far as everything else, we'll all find out at the same time. Aint that right @butchna
 
#53
#53
The other games havent really given them any reason to move us. The only one that deserved to drop behind us was florida state and they did. But alabama beating georgia kinda made it a stalemate. LSU wasnt gonna fall behind us. Penn state lost in overtime to a highly ranked team so they shouldnt. Georgia beat us so there is no reason they should be behind us. Everyone else stayed where they were basically. One could argue that vandy should be ranked ahead of us right now tbh
Who has Vandy beat?
 
#54
#54
The polls have no impact on the playoffs. If we end up with a playoff worthy resume, we will move up in time
This is untrue.

The polls start the conversation. Then the CFP picks up that conversation in October and carries it forward. But they start from where the AP and Coaches brought them.

If the AP and Coaches have us in the top 10 the weeks prior to the first CFP rankings, the Committee won't leave us out of their top 12. Conversely, if the AP and Coaches have us outside the top 20, the CFP will not put us in their top 12.

The CFP are never gonna copy-paste what the AP and Coaches say, there will be nuances all over the place. But they absolutely start from what the major polls are saying.

So yes, the polls do have an impact on the CFP, and therefore the playoffs.

~ ~ ~

Having said that, I agree with your wider sentiment: we control our own destiny, and can absolutely get into the playoffs with a lot of winning ahead.

Go Vols!
 
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#55
#55
Way too early to worry about this, OP. If we go 10-2 or better, we will be in…and 9-3 would get us to at least the fringe.
 
#56
#56
This is untrue.

The polls start the conversation. Then the CFP picks up that conversation in October and carries it forward. But they start from where the AP and Coaches brought them.

If the AP and Coaches have us in the top 10 the weeks prior to the first CFP rankings, the Committee won't leave us out of their top 12. Conversely, if the AP and Coaches have us outside the top 20, the CFP will not put us in their top 12.

The CFP are never gonna copy-paste what the AP and Coaches say, there will be nuances all over the place. But they absolutely start from what the major polls are saying.

So yes, the polls do have an impact on the CFP, and therefore the playoffs.

~ ~ ~

Having said that, I agree with your wider sentiment: we control our own destiny, and can absolutely get into the playoffs with a lot of winning ahead.

Go Vols!

When you are in the SEC, the early polls have little to no impact on you playoff chances. Win 10 games and you will be in.
 
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#60
#60
When you are in the SEC, the early polls have little to no impact on you playoff chances. Win 10 games and you will be in.
Sort of.

They won't exclude you, for sure. But if the early polls keep you lower than you should be, that increases the chance that the CFP, when they pick up the conversation, will shade you lower. And that could make the difference between a home game and an away game in the first round of the playoffs.

And home versus away is a HUGE difference. As we saw last year.

All the big, broad brush strokes early on can translate to fine nuanced positioning advantages (or disadvantages) later.

Go Vols!
 
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#66
#66
I haven't seen anyone have us in the playoffs, AT THIS POINT, September 29, 2025


Andrea Adelson
: 1. Ohio State 2. Miami 3. Oregon 4. Ole Miss 5. Oklahoma 6. Penn State 7. Texas A&M 8. Indiana 9. Iowa State 10. Georgia Tech 11. Texas Tech 12. Memphis

Kyle Bonagura: 1. Ohio State 2. Oregon 3. Miami 4. Ole Miss 5. Oklahoma 6. Texas Tech 7. Penn State 8. Indiana 9. Alabama 10. Georgia 11. Iowa State 12. Memphis

Bill Connelly: 1. Oregon 2. Ohio State 3. Ole Miss 4. Texas A&M 5. Miami 6. Texas Tech 7. Indiana 8. Vanderbilt 9. Iowa State 10. Georgia Tech 11. Missouri 12. Memphis

Eli Lederman: 1. Ohio State 2. Oregon 3. Miami 4. Ole Miss 5. Oklahoma 6. Texas A&M 7. Indiana 8. Alabama 9. Penn State 10. Georgia 11. Texas Tech 12. South Florida

Max Olson: 1. Oregon 2. Ohio State 3. Miami 4. Penn State 5. Texas A&M 6. Ole Miss 7. Georgia 8. Texas Tech 9. Indiana 10. Alabama 11. Iowa State 12. South Florida


Adam Rittenberg: 1. Ohio State 2. Miami 3. Oregon 4. Ole Miss. 5. Oklahoma 6. Texas Tech 7. Indiana 8. Texas A&M 9. Alabama 10. Georgia 11. Penn State 12. Memphis

Mark Schlabach: 1. Ohio State 2. Oregon 3. Miami 4. Texas A&M 5. Ole Miss 6. Texas Tech 7. Oklahoma 8. Indiana 9. Alabama 10. Georgia 11. Penn State 12. South Florida

Jake Trotter: 1. Ohio State 2. Miami 3. Oregon 4. Texas A&M 5. Ole Miss 6. Indiana 7. Oklahoma 8. Alabama 9. Texas Tech 10. Georgia 11. Iowa State 12. South Florida

Paolo Uggetti: 1. Ohio State 2. Oregon 3. Miami 4. Ole Miss 5. Oklahoma 6. Texas Tech 7. Indiana 8. Texas A&M 9. Alabama 10. Georgia 11. Iowa State 12. Memphis

Dave Wilson: 1. Ohio State 2. Miami 3. Oregon 4. Ole Miss 5. Oklahoma 6. Texas Tech 7. Texas A&M 8. Indiana 9. Alabama 10. Georgia 11. Penn State 12. North Texas


  1. Ohio State
  2. Miami
  3. Ole Miss
  4. Oregon
  5. Texas A&M
  6. Texas Tech
  7. Alabama
  8. Georgia
  9. Indiana
  10. Penn State
  11. Oklahoma
  12. Tulane

College Football Playoff projected rankings after Week 5

  1. Ohio State
  2. Alabama
  3. Miami
  4. Oregon
  5. Georgia
  6. Texas Tech
  7. Ole Miss
  8. Texas A&M
  9. Indiana
  10. Iowa State
  11. Texas
  12. Tulane
 
#67
#67
Say what you want, but that was a great road win! And Vols don't move an inch in the polls? Miss St. was undefeated, and had a nice win against Arizona St.. Miss. St. ain't no easy win. Looks like we will have to defeat the darling Alabama and Oklahoma teams to get in to the hunt, or the polls won't move us up. Plus no stupid losses. Go GBO!!!!!
Beat Bama and OU and the conversation will be much different. The current polls mean nothing.
 
#69
#69
The polls are on target. We’re good, but we haven’t impressed them. The third Saturday in October will give us a chance to move up. We have to win 2 of 3 against Bama, Oklahoma, and Florida. Even then, that may not be enough. The B1G has several teams ranked ahead of us, and they may finish ahead of us. Bama losing to FSU hurts the SEC brand. Georgia did not impress. Like it or not, there is a good bit of SEC fatigue/hate.
 
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#70
#70
I wouldnt say no impact entirely. The playoffs are deemed by humans that have grew up with the AP which is listed as the Poll for years. So they do look at it and some ppl are followers using all data to make their decisions, so it has impact in varying degrees. If we win out we are in, if we lose to just Bama we probably get in, even if we beat Bama and lose to say Oklahoma our chances go down. With 2 losses Notre Dame is in because of humans and their thought process. If we lose 3 games not a chance.
The AP poll has zero to do with the CFP rankings put together by the selection committee. The committee uses a pretty strict set of metrics when ranking teams for the CFP - it's available online if you want to read it.

If the AP poll had any impact we wouldn't have been ranked #1 in the first CFP poll of 2022 while we were 3rd in the AP.
 
#73
#73
Say what you want, but that was a great road win! And Vols don't move an inch in the polls? Miss St. was undefeated, and had a nice win against Arizona St.. Miss. St. ain't no easy win. Looks like we will have to defeat the darling Alabama and Oklahoma teams to get in to the hunt, or the polls won't move us up. Plus no stupid losses. Go GBO!!!!!
If we beat Ark and Bama....I PROMISE you we will be in the playoff discussion. If we don't beat Bama, do we REALLY have a right to talk until we run the table the rest of the way?
 
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