• Heather Dinich, ESPN Senior WriterJul 13, 2023, 07:00 AM ET

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    • College football reporter
    • Joined ESPN.com in 2007
    • Graduate of Indiana University

The SEC needed only one team to reach the College Football Playoff last year to earn another national title, but there were moments — the SEC could get THREE teams in!?! — when it looked like they’d get more.

This year, Alabama, LSU and Tennessee will try to elbow out defending national champion Georgia from the top spot, so prepare for conversations about multiple SEC teams finishing in the top four. They won’t be the only conference with multiteam talk, though. The Big Ten produced two semifinalists last year in Ohio State and Michigan — and those schools could do it again. (Unless Penn State has something to say about it … wait, could the Big Ten get THREE teams in?!?)

While it’s certainly possible for a conference to have multiple teams finish in the selection committee’s top four, it’s not normal. It has happened only three times in the playoffs’ nine-year history (excluding the 2020 season, when Notre Dame temporarily joined the ACC because of the COVID-19 pandemic). Alabama and Georgia both finished in the top four in 2017 and 2021, and Ohio State and Michigan represented the Big Ten in the CFP last season.

When the CFP expands to 12 teams in 2024, this won’t be viewed as such a Herculean achievement — conferences will be expected to have at least two or three teams in the field. For one final season, though, the burden of proof remains higher for any team that doesn’t win its conference.

The selection committee must “unequivocally” agree a team that isn’t a conference champion is one of the four best teams in the country. Typically, that has been proven through on-field dominance (the eye test and statistics like scoring margin and a top-15 offense and defense), and strength of schedule, which places a heavy weight on nonconference opponents and wins against CFP top 25 teams.

Taking into consideration how the committee thinks in addition to ESPN’s Football Power Index and other factors, here’s an early prediction on which Power 5 conferences have the best chance to put multiple teams in the playoff.