The first College Football Playoff rankings were released on Tuesday.

Tennessee debuted at No. 7, well within the top 12 of the newly expanded playoff with four games left on its schedule.

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Early bracket projections based on the current rankings would have the Vols (7-1, 4-1 SEC) hosting 8-seed Indiana in the first round with a potential quarterfinals game against 1-seed Oregon.

Tennessee's loss at Arkansas last month remains their lone blemish, but wins over Florida, Alabama and Kentucky in the three-straight weeks has them firmly in the playoff picture in the final month of the regular season.

Tennessee is ahead of unbeaten and No. 8 Indiana, but sits behind one-loss Penn State in the rankings. The No. 6 Nittany Lions are coming off of their first loss of the season to No. 2 Ohio State last week, but have the same record as the Vols after the first week of November.

Playoff selection committee chair Warde Manuel explained the Vols' placement in a teleconference Tuesday night.

MORE FROM VOLREPORT: Where Tennessee stands in initial College Football Playoff rankings

"Penn State lost to the No. 2 Ohio State Buckeyes, and it was a game that went back and forth, and obviously a game that could have gone the other way," Manuel said. "It was back and forth. In that, they have wins over Illinois and Southern Cal in overtime, an opening win at West Virginia, which is difficult to play. So we looked at their body of work. Tennessee has an impressive win over Alabama at No. 11 and wins over North Carolina State and Oklahoma, 4-1 against teams above .500. The loss at Arkansas was something that we discussed a lot. So looking at the resume, looking at what we've seen, the offensive performance, their tight end Tyler Warren is a dominating force on offense.

"I just think Penn State, in terms of their body of work and what the committee saw in terms of their body of work, that came to the ranking of Penn State at 6 and Tennessee at 7."

Tennessee has the opportunity to improve its standing in the coming weeks. The Vols host Mississippi State (2-5, 0-4) on Saturday (7 p.m. ET, ESPN) before playing at Georgia, which was ranked No. 3 by the committee. They end the season against Vanderbilt in Nashville.

The Commodores are currently ranked No. 24 in the Associated Press Top 25.

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