Tennessee just misses Top 25 of CBS 1-130 Preseason Poll

The Tennessee Volunteers have been living on the edge of the top 25 in most preseason polls. We’ve seen them left out in some and we’ve seen them as high as 19 in another. This one from CBS — which just happens to rank all 130 FBS teams — has them at 26.

TCU, Washington State, NC State, Virginia Tech and Texas were the five schools ranked ahead of the Vols. Interestingly enough, CBS gave viewers the option to vote on whether each team was ranked too high or too low. At the time of writing this, 65 percent said Tennessee was too high. You can probably thank last year’s collapse after a 5-0 start, along with the loss of Joshua Dobbs, Derek Barnett, Cameron Sutton, Josh Malone and Jalen Reeves-Maybin for that. I understand.

Here’s how the rest of the SEC East stacked up.

• 15. Georgia
• 16. Florida
• 26. Tennessee
• 42. South Carolina
• 51. Kentucky
• 62. Vanderbilt
• 73. Missouri

(I think they’re probably too low on Missouri and Vanderbilt.)

Tennessee’s week one opponent — the Georgia Tech Yellow Jackets — checked in at 39 overall. UMass, who the Volunteers will take on in week four, brought up the rear of the rankings at 130 overall. Southern Miss, Tennessee’s other non-conference opponent, was ranked 84th.

Of course, Alabama was the number one ranked team in the country. Ohio State followed, with Florida State, USC and Penn State behind.