Could the Tennessee Volunteers Host a First Round College Football Playoff Game?

Could the Tennessee Volunteers end up hosting a first round college football playoff game?

Jonathan Williams | 2 Hours Ago

Tennessee head coach Josh Heupel questions a referee during a college football game between Tennessee and UTEP at Neyland Stadium in Knoxville, Tenn., Saturday, Nov. 23, 2024. / Brianna Paciorka/News Sentinel / USA TODAY NETWORK via Imagn Images

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Tennessee Volunteers

Could the Tennessee Volunteers end up hosting a first round college football playoff game?

After the loss to Georgia, it looked like Tennessee was going to need some help to get their way back into the playoff, and they got more than enough help on Saturday. Alabama lost to Oklahoma, Ole Miss lost to Florida and Indiana lost to Ohio State. Three teams that were ranked ahead of Tennessee opened up a playoff spot for them this week.

Not only did it get the Volunteers back into the playoffs, it might have put them in a position to host a first round playoff game. A few things would need to happen and a lot of it will depend on what happens during conference championship week, but it's certainly a possibility.

The five-seed, the six-seed, the seven-seed and the eight-seed all get to host for the first round. As of right now, it looks like Notre Dame is going to take one of those slots. The winner of Texas A&M vs Texas plays Georgia in the SEC Championship Game and the loser of that might take one of those spots as well. An Oregon vs Ohio State rematch is looking likely for the Big 10 Conference Championship and you would have to imagine that the loser of that game would take a host spot as well. So as of right now, it's looking like there might only be one host spot up for grabs in the playoffs and Tennessee very well could be the team to snag it as an eighth seed.

More clarity will be provided about this when the rankings are released this Tuesday but the Volunteers had a very successful weekend of college football, needless to say.