Actually, it was 1999 when the Vols started the season with a loss to Florida and rose all the way to # 2 by 11/06/99
10/23/99 (5-1) 4th
10/30/99 (6-1) 5th
11/06/99 (7-1) 2nd --- Florida was 8-1 and ranked 4th
The Vols then lost 24-28 at Arkansas and
11/13/99 (7-2) 5th
11/20/99 (8-2) 4th
11/27/99 (9-2) 5th
12/04/99 (9-2) 5th
Could the Vols to have stayed at No. 2 with a victory over Arkansas? Virginia Tech finished unbeaten and played unbeaten Florida State in the championship game. The BCS was a 3 component system that year.... Poll Avg, Comp Avg, and SOS. On 11/6/99, the Vols were just barely better in Comp Avg than Va Tech, 1 spot behind Va Tech in the polls, but were 2 points better than Va Tech in SOS. Therefore, the Vols did the BCS a favor by losing. Not only would the Vols have made the BCS championship game over an unbeaten team.... the Vols would still have had no shot at the SEC Championship because 9-2 Florida w/ only 1 SEC loss would have played in the SECCG against Alabama. Alabama won the title, with their 1-SEC-loss coming at the hand of the Vols (Tenn 21, Bama 7).
To compare and see where the Vols might be if they beat Alabama on Oct. 21, let's see where the 2006 top 10 play the next 2 weeks:
#1 Ohio State - @Mich St., Indiana
#2 Southern Cal - Arizona St., bye
#3 Florida - @Auburn, bye
#4 Michigan - @Penn St., Iowa
#5 Louisville - Cincinnati, @Syracuse
#6 Notre Dame - bye, UCLA
#7 Tennessee - bye, Alabama
#8 Texas - Baylor, @Nebraska
#9 WVU - Syracuse, @UConn
#10 Auburn - Florida, Tulane
Conceivably, each team in the top 10 could lose.... realistically, maybe 3 or 4 will lose. The Vols could very easily be ranked #4 iin similar fashion to 1999 by Oct. 21. I can see the following teams losing: Florida, Michigan, Notre Dame, and maybe Texas.
