The SEC will be hard-pressed to top last season after it produced the national champion and won a record nine bowl games.

But like Nick Saban, we’re never satisfied. Like Leonard Fournette in the photo, we want an encore, another bow.

Here, then, are 10 ways the SEC can be even better in 2016, starting with three of the most obvious.

1. Two teams make the College Football Playoff: Last season, Alabama was the only team to return to the playoff. This season, the SEC could become the first league to send two teams to the playoff. You think the anti-SEC crowd is bad now. Just imagine Alabama and Tennessee facing each other for a third time in the championship game after splitting their regular season and SEC title game matchups.

2. Tennessee wins the national title: Any SEC national title would make it nine in 11 years, but if the Vols break through, they would become the fifth SEC team to capture the crown in the past decade. Fifth.

For perspective, consider: The Big Ten has won three outright national championships in the past 50 years — each by Ohio State. Michigan shared the 1997 title. Nebraska and Penn State weren’t in the Big Ten when they won titles.

Clemson and Florida State are the only two ACC teams to win in that span; Miami and Pitt weren’t members when they won, and Georgia Tech shared the 1990 title. The Big 12 hasn’t won it all since Vince Young led Texas to the 2005 championship.

3. SEC captures another Heisman Trophy: The SEC has dominated this, too, winning five of the past nine years. Four schools produced those Heisman winners. LSU’s Leonard Fournette could add to the tally. So could Georgia’s Nick Chubb.

An SEC win in 2016 also would be the second repeat in the league history. Alabama’s Mark Ingram and Auburn’s Cam Newton won in 2009, 2010, respectively.

4. SEC wins NFL Draft for 11th consecutive year: The SEC led the way again in 2016 with 51 picks, including eight first-rounders. The 2017 draft class could be even better.

Pro Football Focus had 14 SEC players going in the first round of its 2017 mock draft. And that didn’t even include Chad Kelly, who figures to be one of the first quarterbacks taken.

5. Better offense in the East: This is a lock, right? Last year five East offenses ranked among the 32 worst in college football in scoring: No. 96 (Kentucky), No. 100 (Florida), No. 110 (South Carolina), No. 124 (Vanderbilt) and No. 127 (Missouri).

All five had quarterback issues. All five think they have solved said issues.

6. Better quarterbacks everywhere: Let’s give some — okay, a lot — of credit to SEC defenses. The bowl season and draft showed again how miserable SEC defenses can make a quarterback’s life. But there’s no way to sugarcoat how bad last year was.

There are so many stats to support this, but these two are criminal:

Georgia’s longest pass play was 48 yards. Vanderbilt didn’t have a single pass play longer than 44 yards. Vanderbilt’s best pass play all season was a trick call that resulted in an uncovered receiver catching a screen pass near the sideline and racing for a touchdown. Not exactly repeatable.

Five SEC starters threw more interceptions than touchdown passes in 2015. Youth and inexperience were largely to blame. Auburn and Mississippi State still have questions, but overall, this year’s crop will be more experienced, better prepared and simply better overall.

7. Alabama’s defense might be better: How scary is that? That talk started to surface late last season, and it sounded ludicrous, and then the backups helped shut down Clemson in the championship game.

Tim Williams. We see you.

8. East is rising: Four East teams failed to make a bowl game last season. That number should be cut in half this season. All four — South Carolina, Vanderbilt, Kentucky, Missouri — are in better shape heading into this fall than last fall.

9. New energy throughout the league: Whether it’s new coaches, new messages or new title contenders, there is an unmistakable buzz about 2016. It helped, obviously, that Alabama stopped the bleeding and ended the SEC’s two-year national title drought, capping a signature postseason statement and restoring national bragging rights.

All of that has carried over. The two best quarterback recruits in the 2016 class joined the league. Kirby Smart has brought The Process with him to Athens. Butch Jones’ players are telling fans to pack their bags and meet them in Tampa.

The hype is real.

10. Five legitimate national championship contenders: No other league has more than two. Alabama will open the season No. 1 in a lot of polls. LSU and Tennessee will be trendy playoff picks because both return more experienced, proven talent than anybody. Ole Miss has enough offense to outscore anybody, and don’t sleep on Texas A&M. The Aggies have stars at every level on defense and the deepest pass-catching rotation in the league, if not the country. No wonder Trevor Knight wanted to come play there.

You know the SEC has a chance to be better this year than last year when the team that has dominated college football for the past decade might finish third in its own division.

Chris Wright is Executive Editor at SaturdayDownSouth.com. Email him at cwright@saturdaydownsouth.com.