The question initially took Heather Dinich off guard, but the ESPN reporter who covers the College Football Playoff gathered herself and gave an explanation.

Max Kellerman asked her during the “Keyshawn, JWill and Max” program, how likely is it that we get more than 2 SEC teams in the College Football Playoff?

“OK, hold on a minute now, more than 2 SEC teams,” she said. “I’m not buying it. When the selection committee put out its very first ranking, I mean very first in 2014, there were 3 SEC teams in. Didn’t last. They did it, and they can certainly do it again, I’m not saying it’ll ever happen. But at the end of the day, conference championships do matter in that room. It’s one of the tiebreakers along with head-to-head results.”

Then she laid out possible scenarios.

“So if you have Alabama and Georgia in there, even if you have a one-loss Clemson, a one-loss Ohio State, Oklahoma, I think those teams still would get the nod over another SEC team that did not win its conference title. Probably in this case as we’re talking about, not even its division.”

She didn’t put much stock in the third team because it would likely be Texas A&M and Florida, and both would need to beat either Alabama or Georgia, or both. It will ultimately work itself out, she said.