Just In: Tennessee Ranked in Top 25 AP Poll
The Tennessee Volunteers have cracked the Top 25 AP College Football Poll after Week 1's slate of games.
After beginning the year 26th in voting, the Vols find their way in the poll at No. 24 after their Week 1, 59-10 win over Ball State. Tennessee's next opponent, Pitt, stayed at No. 17 in the poll.
Teams above Tennessee that dropped out are Cincinnati and Oregon, as the previously ranked No. 23 Bearcats lost 31-24 to Top-20 team Arkansas. Oregon dropped like a rock from No. 11 to unranked after being blown out 49-3 by (then) No. 3 Georgia.
With the win, Arkansas moves up to No. 16 , still sitting fourth in the SEC behind No. 1 Alabama, No. 2 Georgia and No. 6 Texas A&M.
The biggest mover of the week is Florida, who skyrocketed up to No. 12 after being unranked to begin the season. The Gators get the Top-12 after upsetting No. 7 Utah.
After Florida and Arkansas, Kentucky files in at No. 20, Ole Miss at No. 22, and Tennessee at No. 24, meaning eight teams from the conference are on the poll.
Doing the math, that means 32 percent of the teams on the AP Poll are from the SEC. To further put that into perspective, there are five Power Five conferences and over a fourth of the teams on the poll are from the Southeastern Conference.
The entire poll can be seen here:
Tennessee making the poll marks the first time the Volunteers have cracked the Top 25 since Week 6 of the 2020 season.
It's not hard to see why Tennessee made the poll, either, as the Vols looked sharp in a 49-point blowout win against the Cardinals on Thursday. The Vols first true test comes this weekend, however, as the Big Orange travel north to Pittsburgh to take on the Panthers in the second edition of the Johnny Majors Classic.
Looking long term with Tennessee's recent history in the AP Poll, the Vols have not finished a college football season ranked in the Top 25 poll since 2016, but year two under Josh Heupel may be the best chance Tennessee has had in quite some time of reversing their fortune.
