With two games left on Tennessee football’s schedule, the Vols have their new position inside the College Football Playoffs rankings. UT will head to Florida as the No. 20 team in the country.
This is a continued climb since the first rankings were released the Tuesday after Tennessee fell to Oklahoma. The Vols clocked in at No. 25 that week, then jumped up to No. 23 following their bye week. Now, the latest move comes after a 42-9 home win over New Mexico State.
The position at No. 20 is good for eighth in the SEC. This is behind just No. 3 Texas A&M, No. 4 Georgia, No. 6 Ole Miss, No. 8 Oklahoma, No. 10 Alabama, No. 14 Vanderbilt and No. 17 Texas.
Other teams inside the top 10 are No. 1 Ohio State, No. 2 Indiana, No. 5 Texas Tech, No. 7 Oregon and No. 9 Notre Dame.
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This is now the 21st straight week that Tennessee has been in the College Football Playoff rankings, dating back to the final rankings of the 2021 season. Tennessee came in at No. 1 in the initial CFP rankings of the 2022 season, No. 17 in the initial rankings during the 2023 season and No. 7 in the initial rankings of the 2024 season.
Josh Heupel’s team made the 12-team College Football Playoffs a season ago by posting a 10-2 (6-2 SEC record). Tennessee landed at No. 7 in the final rankings, which earned them the 9-seed in the playoffs and a road trip to eventual national champion Ohio State.
The Vols jumped out to a 5-1 start of the 2025 season but have dropped two of their last four games. Self-inflicted mistakes cost Tennessee badly in a road loss at Alabama and again vs. Oklahoma. Tennessee gave up a pair of defensive touchdowns in both games while combining for four turnovers and a safety.
Tennessee will now play Florida in The Swamp on Saturday at 7:30 p.m. ET. The game will air on ABC. If the Vols pull off the road win, it’d be the first in Gainesville since 2003. The following week, UT will host Vanderbilt to round out the regular season at 3:30 p.m. ET with the game airing on ABC or ESPN.
