Heather Dinich Predicts SEC Will Have Most College Football Playoff Teams

ESPN college football reporter Heather Dinich expects the SEC to send more teams to the College Football Playoff than any other conference this season. The selection committee reveals its first top 25 at 7 p.m. ET on ESPN, and Dinich gave her read on how the field could break down by conference during an appearance on “The Pat McAfee Show” a few hours earlier.

“I think the SEC will wind up having the most teams in the playoff tonight and ultimately, and I think the Big Ten, with Oregon just laying an egg this year, I think that changes the narrative a little bit in that conference as well,” Dinich said.

The latest AP poll makes her case look pretty safe. Ten of the 25 teams in Sunday’s AP Top 25 come from the SEC, and six of them have two losses. No other league has more than five ranked teams.

The ninth SEC game is showing up in the loss column

Dinich tied the crowded middle of the SEC to the league’s move to nine conference games this season. The SEC approved the ninth game in August 2025, and she said everyone involved saw the extra losses coming.

“To me, with the SEC going to nine league games this year, everyone in that conference, coaches, commissioner Greg Sankey, he knew you’re going to see more two- and three-loss SEC teams,” Dinich said.

Texas coach Steve Sarkisian made the same point last week when he said the ninth game adds eight more losses to the league every season. To her point, Saturday’s schedule will add four more, since Georgia visits Ole Miss, Alabama visits LSU, Kentucky visits Tennessee and Texas visits Missouri.

Dinich also pointed to the playoff’s short history with three-loss teams, and she thinks this season could stretch it further.

“Now I want to remind people, there’s only been two three-loss teams in the College Football Playoff,” Dinich said. “Last year, Alabama got in as SEC runner-up. Clemson got in with three losses by winning the ACC. This year, I think there’s a better chance than ever to see a three-loss SEC team in the College Football Playoff that doesn’t play in the conference championship game because these schedules are tough.”

Notre Dame could feel the College Football Playoff squeeze

The format gives automatic bids to the four Power Four champions and the highest-ranked team from the American, Conference USA, MAC, Mountain West, Pac-12 or Sun Belt, even if it does not win its league. Notre Dame also gets an automatic bid if it finishes in the committee’s top 12 on Selection Day. Every SEC team that misses the conference title game will be fighting for the at-large College Football Playoff spots that are left, and Dinich thinks Notre Dame could get caught in that fight.

The Irish are 7-1 and No. 4 in the AP poll, with their only loss coming 28-24 at BYU. They host No. 1 Miami on Saturday, and the rest of their résumé is built on wins over Wisconsin and North Carolina, with SMU still ahead on the schedule.

“If Notre Dame doesn’t beat Miami, you mean to tell me that there’s not a two-loss SEC team sitting out there [that] has better wins than North Carolina, Wisconsin and an SMU team that just lost?” Dinich said. “So that’s why I think that could be tricky for the Irish, ‘cause there’s a lot of two-loss SEC teams that are in the mix.” 

If anything, the numbers back her up. SMU fell to 6-2 with a loss at Syracuse last week, and Wisconsin dropped to 5-3 after Iowa shut out the Badgers.

The Big Ten lost its fourth contender

The Big Ten opened the season with a real chance at four playoff teams. UCLA (8-0) and Indiana (8-1) are No. 5 and No. 6 in the AP poll, and Ohio State dropped from No. 2 to No. 11 after its 30-18 loss at USC.

Oregon was supposed to be the fourth. The Ducks are 5-3, outside the AP Top 25 and dealing with an offense that cost offensive coordinator Drew Mehringer his job, which leaves No. 18 USC and No. 21 Iowa as the league’s next best options.

Of course, the first College Football Playoff rankings are only a starting point, and five more weekends remain before the field is set. By the time the committee releases its second top 25, at least four ranked SEC teams will have another loss on their record.