Vols’ win over ‘Bama loses its luster
The College Football Playoff committee watched Tennessee’s cigar-smoking, field-storming win over Alabama.
That 52-49 victory is why the committee put the Vols at No. 1 in the first CFP ranking a month ago. It was that and a 40-13 rout of LSU.
Here’s what CFP committee chair Boo Corrigan said about Tennessee on Nov. 1.
“Alabama is a team the committee respects highly,” Corrigan said. “Tennessee’s wins against those two strong opponents (Alabama and LSU) really made a difference.”
But those memories have faded, es- pecially the win over Alabama, and been replaced more prominently with the Vols’ 63-38 loss at South Carolina.
Corrigan made that clear Tuesday with the release of the latest CFP rankings, which put Alabama at No. 6 and Tennessee at No. 7.
“The value of head-to-head is certainly one of the criteria that we look at. But we’re looking at a full body of work,” Corrigan said. “When you look at the two losses by Alabama, including one on a last-second field goal to Tennessee, and then you’re measuring somewhere in there the loss Tennessee had to South Carolina.
“As we went through that, that was part of the determination as to why to have Alabama ahead of Tennessee.”
‘Outlier’ was loss to South Carolina, not win over Alabama
So what else was considered in the “full body of work” by the committee?
Tennessee and Alabama both have a 10-2 record.
Alabama is ranked No. 5 in strength of record and No. 8 in strength of schedule. Tennessee is ranked No. 7 in strength of record and strength of schedule. That’s a virtual tie.
Tennessee had better wins. The Vols beat No. 6 Alabama and No. 14 LSU. Alabama beat No. 20 Texas and No. 24 Mississippi State.
Tennessee had worse losses. The Vols lost 27-13 to No. 1 Georgia and 6338 to No. 19 South Carolina. Alabama lost 32-31 to No. 14 LSU and 52-49 to No. 7 Tennessee.
If it’s too close to call, it seems like the head-to-head result would serve as a suitable tiebreaker.
“It was very much debated,” Corrigan said.
But, apparently, Tennessee’s win over Alabama merely kept it close enough to discuss rather than ending the debate the second the Vols lost to the Gamecocks two weeks ago.
“The outlier would be the Tennessee loss to South Carolina as opposed to two close losses by Alabama,” Corrigan said. “That was a determining factor there.”
Granted, the Vols should suffer for that ugly loss. They played sloppy and uninspired.
It looked like the type of loss that should’ve kicked a team out of the CFP race, and it did. But the team that put that poor performance on the field also beat Alabama, which has shown its own warts throughout the season.
And one of those blemishes came at Neyland Stadium.