No. 5 Tennessee and No. 7 USC are two of the 9-1 teams on the outside looking in for the College Football Playoff.
SEC analyst Paul Finebaum gave his prediction for these two teams during an appearance with ESPN’s First Take on Wednesday.
“I think they’re going to take Tennessee,” Finebaum said, per Saturday Down South. “They have a 27-point win over LSU. They have a win over Alabama. Alabama’s going to win out, so they’ll be 10-2 and ranked somewhere in the top six or seven. LSU will not win out, but that’s still a great win when you consider that Tennessee (won) on the road. That trumps anything that Southern Cal has.”
Tennessee has games against South Carolina and Vanderbilt to close out the regular season before a rematch against No. 1 Georgia in the SEC Championship. USC has a far tougher remaining regular season, facing off against No. 16 UCLA and No. 18 Notre Dame to close out the year.
Next week’s College Football Playoff rankings will be announced on Tuesday night.