3 paths for Tennessee to still make the College Football Playoff

How Tennessee can make College Football Playoff amid unadulterated chaos

Are you ready for some chaos? Although the first scenario is slightly chaotic and the second is very much so, is there a third way the Vols can get into the playoff? The only other pathway would have to be for Georgia to completely collapse, Tennessee to stay the course, the Vols get to Atlanta as a one-loss, 11-1 (7-1) SEC East champion and then to lose a close one to the SEC West champion…

Basically, we are going to need to see some 2007 season-level nonsense, and them some, for this to happen. We will need scenarios akin to 13-9 Pitt and 2011 Oklahoma State losing to a bad Iowa State team. This would require Georgia falling off a cliff, the ACC ending horrifically and the Big 12 being utterly toothless by the end of it. You will also need for Michigan or Ohio State to lose twice.

In this scenario, Tennessee would get to Atlanta and then lose to either one-loss Ole Miss, two-loss Alabama or two-loss LSU. The Rebels would have to be the team to win the SEC at 12-1 (7-1) in this extreme hypothetical scenario, as the Crimson Tide or the Tigers would have avenged their conference loss to the Volunteers. Ole Miss beating Tennessee is the only way it makes any sense.

Besides Georgia screwing the pooch in the final quarter of its season with losses at Mississippi State, at Kentucky, and possibly at home vs. Georgia Tech, Tennessee would need for The Game’s loser in the Big Ten to be 10-2 after its conclusion. Ohio State would need to lose back-to-back games with a Maryland loss first or Michigan would need to fall to Illinois the week prior as well.

This is all about eliminating any one-loss, non-champion from the discussion over in Big Ten country. To make things even zanier, sure, why not? Let’s have the Big Ten East champion lose to Illinois or some team coming out of the Big Ten West with three conference losses on the season. To date, no Big Ten West champion has ever defeated the Big Ten East champion in Indianapolis.

From there, the ACC champion needs to be undeserving, as with the Big 12 champion. It is hard to see the Selection Committee keeping a one-loss Pac-12 champion out this season, so let’s see if Utah has what it takes to repeat, shall we? Again, the parlay on this is borderline astronomical, but in theory, Ole Miss and Tennessee would have to be the two SEC teams getting in in this scenario.

Truth be told, the College Football Playoff Selection Committee may not be ready to get a two-loss team into the four-team field. One would think that team would have to be a Power Five champion who has caught fire down the stretch. LSU could be that team, or the Tigers may fall to the wayside like 2016 Penn State. An SEC runner-up with two losses feels like an impossibility.

Then again, a two-loss, non-division champ 2007 Georgia team would have made it in back then…

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