For the second straight week, positive news came in via the College Football Playoff rankings for Tennessee and Josh Heupel. However, also for the second week in a row, plenty of people are left scratching their heads over No. 3 Alabama being so much higher than the No. 8 Vols. It's clear the head-to-head win for UT doesn't mean all that much to the Committee.
More than that, though, Hunter Yurachek and his colleagues keep hyping up the win over Mississippi State early in the season as one of the main reasons why the Crimson Tide are so much in front of Tennessee. It's ridiculous! For the initial rankings, Yurachek claimed Tennessee didn't have enough quality wins. This time around, he's back to his old silly word salad to defend why Bama, a two-loss team, is No. 3.
"They're No.1 in their schedule strength, and they have what we call four quality wins," Yurachek said. "We continue to call that (a quality) win against Mississippi State earlier in the year when they had Kamario Taylor on their team... they were 4-0. Alabama went there, won that game. Alabama, we believe, deserves to be the No. 3 team in the country."
The Tennessee-Alabama debate will hopefully work itself out by the end of the season
When is enough going to be enough? Yes, when Taylor was healthy, he was a stud for the Bulldogs. However, even head coach Jeff Lebby revealed after that loss to the Crimson Tide that Taylor was banged up, which prevented him from taking off and making plays with his legs like usual. This was brought up to Yurachek, but he didn't seem to care too much about that.
"I don't know that we've listened to Jeff Lubby's interviews," Yurachek said. "But Kamario Taylor played in that game, and Alabama dominated that game. Mississippi State at the time was 4-0, on everybody's radar screen in college football."
Give us all a break, Hunter. Tennessee knocked the socks off then No. 6 Kentucky in Week 10 with a 34-6 win, which should have at minimum closed the gap a bit between the Tide and Vols. Even Miami fans have a beef here, as the Canes fell to No. 7, way behind Bama, despite suffering a one-score loss on the road to Notre Dame without Malachi Toney. That's a conversation for another time.
CFP chair Hunter Yurachek, once again, says Alabama and Tennessee aren’t being judged in the same ‘pool’.
— Brad Crawford (@BCrawford247) November 11, 2026
They have the same record and Vols crushed Tide. 🤦♂️ pic.twitter.com/BifRApQrPL
As for the Vols, all they can do to try to impress the Committee is take care of what's in front of them. This weekend, Texas A&M is on the schedule, and it's a must-win battle. The same can be said for the respective tilts with LSU and Vanderbilt. Should Tennessee finish the year 10-2, potentially with the same record as Alabama, you'd have to assume the Vols would pass the Tide, right?
You just never know with the way Yurachek and Co. keep hyping up Kalen DeBoer's squad. Maybe Auburn can do Heupel a favor by beating Alabama in the Iron Bowl, but that shouldn't matter. Head-to-head has to count for something, and the sooner the Committee can forget about Bama's win over an MSU team with Taylor on the field, the better.
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