Heather Dinich breaks down impact of wide open SEC on College Football Playoff race

As the college football season shifts to the home stretch and the College Football Playoff picture comes into clearer focus, one conference is still wide open: The SEC. Entering Week 9, seven of the 16 teams in the league have one or fewer losses in league play.

But none of the 16 teams in the league are undefeated. Texas A&M and LSU will play Saturday for a first-place spot in the league, as the Aggies are 4-0 in league play and the Tigers 3-0. Though the winner of that game will surely still have a tricky path to navigate.

And the multi-team race for SEC supremacy could have ample CFP implications, as ESPN’s Heather Dinich outlined on Tuesday night. The winner of the SEC championship is almost assuredly going to get a Top 4 seed and a bye in the 12-team College Football Playoff.

“Well Rece, there are 10 undefeated teams remaining in the FBS and none of them are in the SEC,” Dinich said to Rece Davis on a dry-run of the CFP rankings show. “This is the most wide-open race remaining as five teams in the SEC still have between a 30 and 50% chance to make it to the conference championship game.”

One team, though, is currently standing out above the rest, Dinich said, and it’s not either of the undefeated league teams.

“But Georgia is No. 1 right now in ESPN’s strength of record metric and that’s because of the win at Texas and don’t forget the season opening win against Clemson. That’s why their resume is so good,” Dinich said.

Right now the Bulldogs are 6-1 overall and 4-1 in the league, coming off a win over then-No. 1-ranked Texas in Austin. Now the Longhorns are also 6-1 overall, but 2-1 in conference play with ground to make up and games in hand.

Beyond the Longhorns and Bulldogs, Tennessee (3-1), Missouri (2-1) and Vanderbilt (2-1) all have just one loss in league play. The Commodores host Texas this weekend in what could functionally be an elimination game.

And lurking in all of this is Alabama, which handed Georgia it’s lone loss but has a pair of losses already season, sitting at 5-2 overall and 2-2 in conference play.

That win is enough to keep the Crimson Tide is play in the CFP race, if not the SEC, Dinich said. The problem, though, is that Alabama doesn’t look poised to hold serve and win out.

“But, on the flip side, you’ve got Alabama and their playoff chances sank by about 23%, according to the Allstate Playoff Predictor, after losing to Tennessee,” Dinich said. “Now, it’s not the two losses that are the problem for the Tide, it’s how they have looked, Rece. One thing that hasn’t changed in that College Football Playoff selection committee meeting room is wanting to see national title contenders and Alabama hasn’t looked like one because of turnovers, penalties and sacks now for three weeks in a row.”