ESPN’s Heather Dinich projects 5 SEC teams in College Football Playoff after Week 3
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With 3 weeks of the 2026 college football season having passed by now, the group of top-tier contenders in the sport has begun to take shape.
And with the SEC having posted by far the best record out of any league during non-conference action, it’s no wonder that plenty of the region’s teams are included in the mix of championship-caliber squads at this juncture.
As she does each week, ESPN’s Heather Dinich released her weekly College Football Playoff predictions on Sunday, and her rankings reflected the SEC’s early dominance. She featured 5 teams from the conference within the rankings, including a trio of teams included in the top 4.
Texas remained at No. 1 following its comfortable win over UTSA, but Ole Miss leapt into the second spot after taking down LSU on Saturday night.
Georgia slid in at No. 4, with Dinich citing the Bulldogs’ lacking strength of schedule as the main reason they aren’t ranked higher at this point.
Having survived a weekend scare from Florida State, Alabama occupied the seventh spot, while LSU dropped to No. 8 following its 32-24 defeat in Oxford.
Only the Big Ten (3) also featured multiple teams in Dinich’s Week 3 CFP rankings.
Here is Dinich’s current projected Playoff field:
- Texas
- Ole Miss
- Ohio State
- Georgia
- Miami
- Notre Dame
- Alabama
- LSU
- Indiana
- BYU
- USC
- Boise State (highest Group of 6 team)
Parker is currently the sports editor for Gulf Coast Media in Foley, Alabama. He's a graduate from Mizzou who has experience covering the Tiger football and basketball beats for SB Nation, and he's worked for a variety of sports news outlets in the past.
