Polls keeping us out of the playoffs

[LittleVol]

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 lost those games would we really deserve or want to be in the playoffs?

We’re 4 points away from being the #4 ranked team in America.

Let the season play out.

 

[WillisWG]

it's a cliche but we control our own destiny....and there is plenty of destiny in our remaining schedule to move us up, even if they're ALL end up as OT Ws

 

[VFL-82-JP]

The AP poll has zero to do with the CFP rankings put together by the selection committee.

That is naive. The AP and Coaches start the national conversation. They absolutely influence the selection committee and how they apply their metrics.

 

[Power_Sweep_Vol]

That is naive. The AP and Coaches start the national conversation. They absolutely influence the selection committee and how they apply their metrics.

False…where’s your evidence?

 

[GVF]

Because we haven't really played anyone other than Georgia.

Another reason to hate Bama, but if Georgia would have won this week, we likely would have moved up a couple of spots. Our loss to Georgia doesn't look as good now.

Take care of business in Tuscaloosa and we'll jump 7+ spots, perhaps even past UGA

Yeah, but to remain behind an obviously befuddled LSU team is inexplicable. And we're not the only team in the rankings that can say that.

Same goes for a lackluster Texas team too.

UGA dropping 7 to PSU's 4 is also bogus.

 

[Power_Sweep_Vol]

Really, who cares about the AP poll 5 wks in? No reason to get charged up over something that doesn’t matter in the least

 

[Doctrippin]

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!!!!!

TAMU seems to have the easiest route to get to the playoffs right now, with TX looking very beatable. Yes, we have to go beat Bama at home, and if we can't do that, do we deserve to be there?

 

[NEO]

We beat Bama and OK we are in.

 

[Sudden Impact]

The playoffs we have 8 teams maybe even 9 vying for 4 slots. Very tight window.
GA, Alabama, OK, Texas, Texas A&M, Mississippi, LSU, Tennessee. Vanderbilt and Missouri outside looking in at the moment.

9-3 will not cut it.

 

[Hunerwadel]

Keep winning and they’ll have no choice but to move us up.

Correct, we're about where we should be right now. A creampuff win, a loss and a win in OT in the last three weeks isn't exactly setting the woods on fire.

 

[US2BVOL]

Because we haven't really played anyone other than Georgia.

Another reason to hate Bama, but if Georgia would have won this week, we likely would have moved up a couple of spots. Our loss to Georgia doesn't look as good now.

Take care of business in Tuscaloosa and we'll jump 7+ spots, perhaps even past UGA

A loss and we are out of polls

 

[BleedingOrangeInChatt]

Who has Vandy beat?

South Carolina while they were ranked #11 and did it in blow out fashion plus they're 5-0. Say what you want but their resume is better than ours at the moment.

 

[TNCNGuy]

If we are 10-2, we make the playoffs. Any SEC or B10 team that is 10-2 makes the playoffs. In two years, the playoffs will be 16 teams just to let the 9-3 teams make the playoffs. So, we need to beat OK and Vandy at home, Gators away.

If we somehow beat Bama, we go to the SEC game for a rematch with UGA.

 

[VolBallGuy]

Just beat Arkansas please.

 

[TNBV]

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

Why would anyone have us in at this point? Everyone of these has 2 teams in that we have to play in the future so the path is there.

 

[beachvol23]

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!!!!!

The polls are irrelevant in the CFP metrics.

 

[VFL-82-JP]

False…where’s your evidence?

Okay, that's easy to prove.

Let's take last year. The Sunday prior to the first CFP rankings, the AP poll included five undefeated teams. In alphabetical order they were: Army, BYU, Indiana, Miami, and Oregon.

None of these teams had played one another. They had hardly played anyone from each other's conferences. So how to figure out where they stood relative to one another? And relative to all the other teams in the top 25?

That's a complicated question. One would expect some differences of opinion. And some nuance.

Get this: with the exception of Army, the CFP voters put them in exactly the same order as the AP. Not only relative to each other, but also in relation to every other team in the polls:

AP:
#1 Oregon
#4 Miami
#8 Indiana
#9 BYU

CFP:
#1 Oregon
#4 Miami
#8 Indiana
#9 BYU

With the exception of Army, identical. Identical. Look at that numbering. Not close, identical.

Yes, there were exceptions. The CFP put Ohio State and Georgia 2-3 while the AP had them Georgia - Ohio State

But the exceptions were rare. Differences should be common if the CFP were truly starting from scratch, but they were rare.

It is unquestionable. The AP and Coaches polls start the national conversation on which teams are better than which other teams, and drive that conversation for two months. Then the CFP joins in, STARTING FROM THE COMMONALITY OF THAT NATIONAL CONVERSATION.

It's sort of like an athiest thinking he gets his values (don't kill people, don't steal, etc.) out of the ether, rather than from a civilization-wide judeo-christian foundation.

This is intuitively obvious to anyone watching the sport. Come on, admit that you see it.

Go Vols!

 

[VFL-82-JP]

The polls are irrelevant in the CFP metrics.

Wrong. The polls set the national conversation. The CFP picks it up after it has been running for two months.

 

[beachvol23]

You didn’t understand the word metric?

 

[VolFanNC09]

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!!!!!

We need to beat OK, not so much Bama. Lose to Bama and win out and we are in.

 

[VFL-82-JP]

You didn’t understand the word metric?

Metric is a buzzword organizations use to mask doing things however they see fit behind a screen of "objectivity" and "science".

I spent significant chunks of a full career on various Army staffs establishing and implementing metrics, applying them and interpreting them. They are, for the most part, a fig leaf behind which executors do what they feel is best.

Go Vols!

 

[JBVolunteer]

With our schedule, 3 losses will keep us out of the CFP. 3 is the only number that matters. 10-2 and we are in. 9-3 and we won’t make it.

 

[volfan102455]

Everyone needs to chill. Win out and we are definitely in, no questions whatsoever. Lose 1 more and unless there is a host of SEC teams with 2 losses, we are okay. Lose 2 more and we need a lot of help from a lot of teams.

 

[Swiftybaby]

The real poll comes out in a few weeks. Don’t worry about it till then

 

[EastTNVol6240]

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!!!!!

Who should we be ahead of?