Tennessee lands No. 1 spot in College Football Playoff rankings reveal

What was unfathomable about 22 months ago has come true tonight — the Tennessee Volunteers are the No. 1 ranked team in the country. Josh Heupel has dragged this program straight from the basement to the penthouse in just under two years.

The Volunteers got over the Florida hump, and then found a way to beat Alabama to get to this point. Each time you thought they might have a letdown, they’ve responded with blowout victories.

After that 8-0 start, Tennessee opens the College Football Playoff rankings at No. 1.

Now, a showdown with No. 3 Georgia looms next on Saturday afternoon.

Was this the right move? Absolutely. Tennessee holds wins over Florida, Alabama and Kentucky at home, along with wins at Pittsburgh and LSU. Frankly, no team’s body of work comes close. If we’re judging things by what we’ve seen to this point on the field, no team has done more than Tennessee.

Georgia has a really good win over Oregon, handled Florida last week, but that’s about it. Ohio State beat Penn State and Notre Dame... and not much else.

This, of course, will all be worked out on the field. The Tennessee-Georgia winner this week likely gets Alabama in Atlanta. Ohio State and Michigan will play to end the season. We’ll see if TCU and Clemson can close things out in their conference slates.

We’ll get a big shakeup in next week’s rankings, but for now, the Tennessee Volunteers sit atop the college football world.

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Complete Top 25

1. Tennessee

2. Ohio State

3. Georgia

4. Clemson

5. Michigan

6. Alabama

7. TCU

8. Oregon

9. USC

10. LSU

11. Ole Miss

12. UCLA

13. Kansas State

14. Utah

15. Penn State

16. Illinois

17. North Carolina

18. Oklahoma State

19. Tulane

20. Syracuse

21. Wake Forest

22. NC State

23. Oregon State

24. Texas

25. UCF