It’s never too early.
Something new for the 2024 season will be a legitimate College Football Playoff bubble, which will be very much more complex as the sport moves to a 12-team field. Gone is the need to be perfect and reach the top four — now we’ll be dealing with automatic conference title bids and an expanded at-large group.
The bubble moves from 3-6 to 8-15 or so, creating plenty of opportunity to argue with each other over the next few months. Naturally, Tennessee falls squarely in that range.
Tennessee handled Chattanooga with ease last weekend and benefitted from early losses from both Clemson and Florida State. The Vols were hurt in the AP poll by big wins from Miami and USC, however.
In a weekly update from ESPN, Heather Dinich has the Volunteers in the ‘first four out’ category.
Tennessee Volunteers: The Allstate Playoff Predictor likes the Vols more than Missouri, giving them a 49.9% chance to reach the 12-team field. This is certainly possible with a quarterback as talented as Nico Iamaleava, but the Vols would bolster the hype more with a win Saturday against NC State in the Duke’s Mayo Classic. ESPN Analytics gives the Vols an 88.1% chance to win.
Missouri, Michigan and Oklahoma joined Tennessee in the first four out.
The Volunteers have an opportunity to impress the committee this week, taking on No. 24 NC State in Charlotte to really get their season rolling. As we’ve said all offseason long — assuming Tennessee gets past the Wolfpack this weekend — the Vols’ season comes down to three games. At Oklahoma, home against Alabama and at Georgia. The path to (at least) 10-2 is there, and that should be enough to put Tennessee in the field.
ESPN College Football Playoff prediction heading into week 2
1. Georgia
2. Ohio State
3. Miami
4. Utah
5. Texas
6. Notre Dame
7. USC
8. Penn State
9. Ole Miss
10. Alabama
11. Oregon
12. Boise State