Tennessee’s place in the early-season national conversation held steady in the FWAA-NFF Super 16 Poll, but one Hall of Fame voter saw the Vols much differently.
After Week 2 of the 2026 college football season, Tennessee checked in at No. 14 in the poll. The Vols are 2-0 after a 45-24 win at Georgia Tech, which dropped to 0-2.
That overall ranking didn’t stop former Kansas State quarterback and 2023 College Football Hall of Fame inductee Michael Bishop from putting Tennessee all the way up at No. 4 on his ballot.
The FWAA-NFF Super 16 Poll, released Sunday, is now in its ninth year of voting participation from Vols Wire. The poll was created after the 2013 season by the Football Writers Association of America and the National Football Foundation and features rankings of the top 16 FBS teams each week during the season. Voters include FWAA writers and College Football Hall of Fame inductees, with a computer program from TicketManager compiling the results and Kellner Ratings publishing the individual votes.
At the top of the Week 2 rankings, Texas held the No. 1 spot with 848 points and 33 first-place votes. Georgia followed at No.
2, Notre Dame was No. 3, and Miami landed at No. 4.
Indiana sat at No. 5, Ohio State at No. 6, and LSU rounded out the top seven.
Ole Miss, Texas A&M, Alabama, USC, Texas Tech, BYU, Tennessee, Penn State, and Oregon completed the rest of the top 16.
Among the teams outside the main list, SMU led the group of others receiving votes with 92. Utah and Michigan each had 42, while Oklahoma had 26.
Virginia received 21, Louisville and Missouri each had 13, and Washington had 10. Kansas State, Florida, and Mississippi State each picked up six, Houston had five, UCLA had four, Boise State and South Carolina had two apiece, and Virginia Tech received one.
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Tennessee Still Has One Big Recruiting Question To Answer
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