Heather Dinich explains how the SEC can get 3 teams into 2023 College Football Playoffs

The College Football Playoff is set to expand in 2024, as the upcoming 2023 CFP will represent the last year of a four-team playoff before the field jumps up to 12 teams. And for the last nine seasons, numerous teams and fanbases looking from outside the top four have believed that their program deserved a shot in the playoffs.

Those attitudes rise when multiple teams from the same conference have received a spot in the College Football Playoff, which has happened once with the Big Ten and twice with the SEC. And on ESPN’s ‘Get Up‘ while reporting from SEC Media Days in Nashville, ESPN’s Heather Dinich shared that she believes it could happen again this upcoming season with the Southeastern Conference.

“Well look, Alabama and Georgia can certainly get in the College Football Playoff together again,” Dinich said. “We’ve seen it before, we can see it happen again.”

The Crimson Tide and Bulldogs have made the College Football Playoff together twice, but Dinich made a bold claim that there’s a possibility that a third SEC team could make it into the four-team CFP this upcoming season.

“But here’s where things could get interesting because Alabama plays Texas, LSU plays Florida State. Florida State can win the ACC, Texas is an overwhelming favorite to win the Big 12. If both of those schools in the SEC West beat conference champions in other Power 5 leagues and Georgia wins the East, you’re going to hear me talking about the possibility of three SEC teams,” Dinich said.

Three teams from the same conference making the College Football Playoff would be unprecedented and a controversial way to end the four-team playoff era. But the strength of schedule for the Crimson Tide and the Tigers outside of their already difficult conference schedule could play in their favor depending on what Florida State and Texas accomplish this season.

Three SEC teams in the College Football Playoffs would surely cause some outrage in other regions of the country and likely disrespect several accomplished teams in the nation come December. So much so that the SEC-loving analyst Paul Finebaum even believes that it’s an unlikely possibility.

“As much as I would like to see four, I think there’s a better probability of two Heather,” Finebaum said. “I don’t think there’s any way three are going to make it in because I think we’re forgetting about the team I’m most interested in and that’s Ohio State.”