The Tennessee Volunteers have never even mattered in the College Football Playoff rankings. That alone should frustrate fans on Rocky Top.
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Once again, the College Football Playoff rankings are set to begin. From now until the end of the regular season, everybody will have a blast debating who belongs where. And team’s fan bases will all have fun fighting over it.
That is, except for Tennessee, of course. Ever since the College Football Playoff began in 2014, the Tennessee Vols fans have been completely irrelevant.
There has never been one set of College Football Playoff rankings in any week since 2014 that Vols fans had any reason to take interest in. It’s one thing to have never made the playoff.
It’s another thing entirely to have never even mattered in the rankings. What qualifies as mattering?
Perhaps being in the Top 15 of one batch with a legitimate chance to one day move into the top four if everything broke your way.
Over 40 teams have been able to say that since 2014 when the rankings began at least once. Even the Memphis Tigers, on the other side of the state, had a point when they could look at the College Football Playoff standings and debate about them being higher.
But the Vols? It hasn’t even been close.
That in itself is an indictment against Butch Jones. Even as an 8-4 program, you should be able to squeak in at least once.
The Nebraska Cornhuskers have! But the Vols haven’t.
Now, to be fair, part of the reason for that is Tennessee plays the bulk of its difficult schedule in September and October every year. So if they’re not good enough to make the College Football Playoff, it will show before Nov. 1.
And that’s been the case on Rocky Top since Jones has gotten there. The closest they could have come was 2016 with their 5-0 start when they got into the Top 10.
But a three-game losing streak ended that opportunity.
In 2015, they had all their tough games before November. They were rebuilding in 2014, and they’ve fallen off a cliff this year.
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However, in four years, Tennessee is a school that should find a way to matter at least once in the College Football Playoff rankings, even if they don’t make it. That hasn’t happened, and it makes Butch Jones look even worse.