The college football world will see a major shift in 2024 when the College Football Playoffs move from a 4-team format to a 12-team format. That’s also in addition to the nation’s two best conferences bringing in more talented programs as the SEC added Texas and Oklahoma and the Big Ten added Oregon, Washington, UCLA, and Southern Cal.
It’s safe to say that the sport is entering a new era with the ability to have more teams compete for the championship in a bracket-style format. The 12 teams will include the six highest-ranked conference champions with the top four receiving a bye into the second round of the tournament. The six highest-ranked remaining teams will fill in the rest of the bracket.
While most are optimistic about the future of Tennessee football with a slew of talented players heading into the season, six analysts from ESPN don’t believe that Tennessee’s time is just yet.
ESPN analysts David Hale, Harry Lyles Jr., Chris Low, Bill Connelly, Andrea Adelson, and Heather Dinich all came together to write about some of their CFP thoughts and make some way-too-early predictions. Despite some bold predictions on the table, none of the analysts picked Tennessee to make the playoffs in 2024.
The predictions are riddled with SEC picks, though. All six analysts have Georgia, Texas, and Ole Miss while five of the six have Alabama factored in as well. Adelson and Dinich are high on Eli Drinkwitz with picks for Missouri to land in the college football playoffs.
“Ole Miss feels like an easy choice, but how about Missouri from the SEC? An expanded playoff surely means the potential for at least three (or likely more?) SEC teams to make it in,” Adelson wrote. “Mizzou would have made a 12-team playoff last year and is returning quarterback Brady Cook and top receiver Luther Burden III.”
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One more notable aspect is that half of the analysts have Memphis as the lone team from the state of Tennessee in as the 12 seed as the group of five selection.
“I’ll pick the Group of 5 representative and go with Ryan Silverfield’s Memphis Tigers,” Lyles Jr. wrote. “With SMU going to the ACC, Tulane having another year of departures after 2022’s run to the Cotton Bowl, and UTSA welcoming in a new quarterback, I think the Tigers are in a great position in the AAC to make a run.”
In addition to the buzz that already surrounds quarterback Nico Iamaleava and EDGE rusher James Pearce Jr. heading into the 2024 season, the Vols also pulled a nice group of players from the transfer portal. Tennessee hauled in OT Lance Heard from LSU, WR Chris Brazell from Tulane, and CB Jermod McCoy from Oregon State among other players.
The Vols also received good news with OT John Campbell Jr. and WR Bru McCoy announcing their return to Tennessee for the upcoming 2024 season.
Tennessee will kick off the 2024 season on Saturday, Aug. 31, with a game against Chattanooga in Neyland Stadium.
To see ESPN’s full early 2024 college football playoff projections, click here.
One Response
Everyone knows ESPN hates Tennessee, proven fact.So not a surprising story. But we are going to see how season plays.