Why committee has Vanderbilt outside CFP after 10-2 season, Tennessee win

Vanderbilt football's hopes of making the College Football Playoff are all but over after being ranked No. 14 in the committee's penultimate rankings on Dec. 2.

While BYU and Alabama, both ranked ahead of the Commodores, could lose conference championship games, there are still two other teams, Miami and Texas, ahead of Vanderbilt in the pecking order that do not play in conference championship games.

Arkansas athletic director Hunter Yurachek, the CFP committee chair, said teams could still move up or down if they were not playing in conference championship games and that no team was necessarily eliminated, but the Commodores' standing seems insurmountable.

Despite finishing with a 10-2 regular season record and a 45-24 drubbing of Tennessee on Nov. 29, here's why Vanderbilt won't likely be in the College Football Playoff.

Why Vanderbilt stayed at No. 14 in CFP rankings

Vanderbilt was ranked No. 14 in the CFP rankings before facing Tennessee as well. The Commodores moved ahead of Utah, but dropped below Texas. The Longhorns beat Vanderbilt head-to-head and upset previously unbeaten Texas A&M on Nov. 29 but were 9-3 overall with a loss to 4-8 Florida.

Vanderbilt was also below a pair of 10-2 SEC teams in Oklahoma and Alabama, who came in at No. 8 and No. 9. Yurachek said the differentiator between those teams was a lack of a signature win for the Commodores. None of the teams Vanderbilt beat finished in the CFP top 25, though Tennessee was ranked before the two played.

Vanderbilt lost to Alabama and Texas, with Yurachek noting that the game against the Crimson Tide was closer than the final 30-14 margin indicated while the Longhorns game was the opposite − Texas led 34-10 before Vanderbilt scored 21 points in the fourth quarter.

"They just don't have a signature win," Yurachek said. "They've got wins against LSU, Missouri and Tennessee. Missouri and Tennessee were previously ranked in their poll. They are no longer ranked in our poll. And then the two ranked teams that Vanderbilt has played Alabama and Texas. ... I think it's just that the lacking that signature winner to that teams like Texas, Miami, Utah, teams above them have."

Why was Vanderbilt not given more credit for win over Tennessee?

One of the arguments coach Clark Lea made arguing for the Commodores' CFP inclusion was that a lack of ranked wins was due to teams dropping in the polls after losing to Vanderbilt. That was certainly the case with the Vols, who were ranked No. 19.

Why didn't the Commodores rise similarly? Yurachek said it was because the teams ranked around Vanderbilt also won.

"I think it's what happened around Vanderbilt this week, with Texas also getting a win against Texas A&M, who was ranked third, Miami, getting a win at a ranked Pittsburgh team, BYU winning against Central Florida," Yurachek said. "So it's not that we didn't want to reward Vanderbilt for that win, but there's some things that happened around the teams that they were ranked with that really kept them in that 14th spot."

Aria Gerson covers Vanderbilt athletics for The Tennessean. Contact her at [email protected] or on X @aria_gerson.

This article originally appeared on Nashville Tennessean: Diego Pavia, Vanderbilt football outside CFP, here's why