The first round of bowl projections are out.
We are oh-so-close to the return of college football, and what better way to kick things off with a round of way too early bowl projections. ESPN has their first batch of the season out, and they project the Volunteers to miss the first ever 12-team College Football Playoff.
Instead, ESPN projects Tennessee to land in a couple of familiar spots — The Gator or the Citrus Bowl.
2024 ESPN Tennessee Preseason Bowl Projections
Bonagura: (Gator) Louisville vs. Tennessee
Schlabach: (Citrus) Michigan vs. Tennessee
Tennessee appeared in the Citrus Bowl last season, blowing out Iowa for their first win in the game since the 2001 season. They last appeared in the Gator Bowl during the 2019 season.
Tennessee ranks 9th in ESPN’s Football Power Index. The metric gives the Volunteers a 36.9 percent chance to make the playoff field, with a six percent chance to make the National Championship game. According to DraftKings Sportsbook, Tennessee is +170 to make the playoff.
The at-large spots in the field were given to the likes of Oregon, Alabama, Texas, Penn State, Ole Miss, Clemson, Miami and Arizona. Boise State and Memphis were projected as the group of five auto-bid (No. 12 seed). Utah, Florida State, Ohio State and Georgia were the top four seeds in the projection.
“Clemson, Tennessee, Michigan, Missouri and Iowa were also considered for at-large bids,” ESPN’s Mark Schlabach noted. “Memphis gets the nod as the fifth conference champion over Liberty, Boise State and UTSA.”
The new playoff bubble is certainly going to be interesting and drum up a lot of conversation. Tennessee is likely going to be in the thick of that conversation, and games at Oklahoma, Georgia and home against Alabama will ultimately be the final determining factor.
The College Football Playoff is slated to begin on December 20th and run through Monday, January 20th, where the National Championship will be played.