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Tennessee fans haven’t forgotten about the Vols’ win over Alabama on the Third Saturday in October, but it may seem like it slipped the mind of the College Football Playoff selection committee.
Alabama (8-2) is ranked No. 7 in the new CFP poll, which was released Tuesday. Tennessee (8-2) dropped to No. 11 after losing 31-17 to Georgia.
So why is there such a gap between Tennessee and Alabama?
College Football Playoff selection committee chair Warde Manuel said it’s because Alabama has gotten hot since losing to Tennessee 24-17 on Oct. 19.
“(SEC teams) have beaten each other at different times. So we have to look at Alabama in the last three games. Particularly the two before they played Mercer, they won in dominant fashion,” Manuel said. “We were really impressed by (Alabama’s) win at LSU two weeks ago. So it is close. There are a lot of conversations, and we’ll continue to monitor the performance of all these teams.”
Alabama has played three games since losing to Tennessee. The Tide won 34-0 over Missouri, 42-13 over LSU and 52-7 over Mercer.
Tennessee has played three games since beating Alabama. The Vols won 28-18 over Kentucky, 33-14 over Mississippi State and lost 31-17 to Georgia.
But Tennessee has competing interests when it comes to Alabama because it’s the best win on the Vols’ resume. In theory, the higher that Alabama goes the better it is for Tennessee.
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Texas (9-1) is No. 3 despite losing its only game to a CFP Top 25 team, a 30-15 defeat to Georgia.
After that, four SEC teams with 8-2 records who beat one another are clustered together.
No. 7 Alabama and No. 9 Ole Miss beat No. 10 Georgia. And Georgia beat No. 11 Tennessee.
So at first glance, the order of those four teams makes…
Source link : https://sports.yahoo.com/why-tennessee-fell-behind-alabama-021643407.html
Author : Knox News | The Knoxville News-Sentinel
Publish date : 2024-11-20 02:16:00
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