Tennessee fans say they got screwed out of a home playoff game in 2024, and the latest college football development suggests they were right
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Tennessee Volunteers fans who feel like the program was screwed out of a home College Football Playoff game are feeling justified this week.
The Tennessee Vols deserved to host a College Football Playoff game in 2024.
That was true two years ago, and it feels even more true now after some college football news that dropped this week.
Tennessee fans who were upset the Vols didn't have a home playoff game in 2024 were right
Tennessee had a legitimate argument to host a playoff game in 2024. The Vols needed to beat out four teams: Ohio State, Notre Dame, Texas, and Penn State.
When you actually broke down the resumes, Tennessee’s case was arguably the strongest.
Ohio State had two wins against playoff teams in Indiana and Penn State, but neither of those opponents had a signature win of their own. The Buckeyes lost to Oregon (No. 1 in playoff rankings) on the road early and then lost at home to Michigan (a 7-5 team). Tennessee, meanwhile, lost to Arkansas (a 6-6 team) on the road and lost to Georgia (No. 2 in the final playoff rankings) on the road. The Vols were undefeated at home and Ohio State wasn’t (the two teams had very similar losses otherwise). I think that matters — especially when the conversation is about who deserves to host a playoff game.
Notre Dame had the worst loss in college football that year, falling at home to Northern Illinois. Texas didn’t have a single win against a team that finished ranked in the final playoff rankings. And Penn State’s best win was against Illinois (Tennessee's best win was against 9-3 Alabama, which finished No. 11 in the final playoff rankings — meaning the Vols kept them out, essentially).
I think it's fair to assume that the reason Tennessee didn't host was because Michigan athletic director Warde Manuel was the chairman of the playoff committee.
And in subsequent years, it's become clear that Manuel had no business being on that committee, let alone chairing it.
Manuel is on the verge of losing his job amid a wave of scandals and a $12 million investigation. The University of Michigan Board of Regents is meeting later this week in Traverse City to determine Manuel’s fate. And the fact that this is the guy who served as the point man in the room when Tennessee was denied a home playoff game should make every Vols fan furious all over again.
The Big Ten got the nod over the SEC in 2024
The SEC hosted one playoff game in 2024: Texas against Clemson. The Big Ten hosted two: Penn State against SMU and Ohio State against Tennessee. I don’t want to call it a conspiracy theory, but the optics are hard to ignore. You had a sitting Big Ten athletic director operating as the committee chairman. You had an SEC team in Tennessee that was, on paper, deserving. The Vols didn’t get to host, but the Big Ten teams whose cases were more questionable (or at best a coin flip) got the nod.
At the time, Manuel claimed that they didn't base the rankings on playoff matchups.
"Ultimately as a committee and as we voted these teams, Ohio State was one ahead of Tennessee," said Manuel. “But we didn't look at it as, well, if we put Ohio State at 6 and Tennessee at 7, one is going to host and one is not. We never [did that]. I can assure you, and everybody on this call, we never even talked about it until after the top 25 was ranked.”
Is it really that crazy to think that the Big Ten athletic director, who is now fighting for his job amid multiple scandals, could have done his conference a favor by steering the home playoff game decision toward Ohio State and Penn State instead of Tennessee?
Looking back at what we know about Manuel, it's incredible that he was even on the committee, let alone served as the chairman. The Connor Stalions sign-stealing scandal, which likely cost Tennessee a playoff spot in 2022 based on the evidence from that South Carolina game, happened on his watch. Then there’s the Sherrone Moore saga, a dramatic situation that ultimately led to Moore's firing. All of that contributed to an investigation that resulted in Michigan spending $12 million on an investigation.
This is a guy whose reputation is slipping by the day, and he was the one running the room when the committee decided Tennessee shouldn’t host a playoff game.
The Vols deserved to host a playoff game that season. The team earned it. And it would have been an incredible scene at Neyland Stadium. If Tennessee had won that night, regardless of what happened in the next round, it would have been one of the coolest moments in program history.
The reality is that what appeared to be compromised playoff committee chairman is the reason Neyland Stadium didn’t get to host that game. Tennessee fans were frustrated by it then, and while nothing can change what happened, knowing what we know now about Manuel and the mess at Michigan, it feels even worse. The Vols were robbed of something special by a guy who clearly didn’t deserve to be the chairman.
This article was originally published on A to Z Sports. Read the full story here: Tennessee fans say they got screwed out of a home playoff game in 2024, and the latest college football development suggests they were right
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