The 2024-25 SEC basketball league is truly unprecedented.
It’s been said, and rightfully so, that the conference might just be the best one the sport has ever seen. After 1.5 rounds of SEC Tournament basketball, the “might” should be dropped. It IS the best conference the sport has ever seen.
For proof of this, look no further than the fact that the SEC isn’t just heading toward breaking the all-time record for most teams from any conference in the NCAA Tournament field, it’s racing toward it.
In 2011, the college basketball world was blessed with Big East basketball, a league that got a then jaw-dropping 11 teams into the dance as UConn, Marquette, Pittsburgh, Notre Dame, Syracuse, West Virginia, Cincinnati, Louisville, St. John’s, Georgetown and Villanova all made March Madness.
UConn was the best of the bunch, earning a No. 3 seed and going on to win the national championship.
Not long after, the conference had a massive breakup as Louisville, Syracuse, Notre Dame and Pittsburgh would find their ways to the ACC, West Virginia and Cincinnati eventually wound up in the Big 12, Rutgers would join the Big Ten and South Florida would fall out of the power conference structure. While the Big East is once again a great basketball league, it has never reached the high it did in 2011.
Looking at the 2024-25 SEC, the conference has the real chance to get 14 of its 16 teams into March Madness. Fourteen.
And it’s not a quiet 14, either.
The 2011 Big East got one No. 1 seed (Pittsburgh) while Notre Dame got a No. 2 and UConn and Syracuse earned No. 3 seeds.
The 2025 SEC has projected No. 1 overall seed Auburn while Florida, Tennessee and Alabama are all also in the mix to get a No. 1 seed. Florida has the nod by bracketologists right now, making the Vols and Tide surefire No. 2 seeds. On top of that, CBS Sports’ Jerry Palm also has Texas A&M getting a No. 2 seed and Kentucky as a No. 4.
Beyond that group of “elite” teams, multiple of which are popular picks to win the NCAA Tournament, Mississippi State, Ole Miss, Georgia, Vanderbilt and Missouri all entered Nashville seemingly with room to spare to make the tournament.
While South Carolina and LSU didn’t have a prayer without an auto bid, Oklahoma, Texas and Arkansas all had realistic chances to make the field if results went their way in the country music capital of the world and, so far, they have.
Perhaps the safest of the bunch, John Calipari’s Arkansas Razorbacks took care of business against South Carolina, preventing another nuclear loss, and nearly beat Ole Miss, doing just enough that many are confident the Hogs will be in the field.
“Hopefully we’ve done enough and done enough in this league. You’re playing the No. 1 ranked, No. 2 ranked. You’re doing the things that we’ve done. I think we’ve proven it,” Calipari said. “In non-conference, we played probably four or five or six teams that will be in the NCAA tournament out of those 13. Then the games we played against this league, I mean, you tell me how many of these teams are going to be in. This team has proven it all year. They’ve made me proud. I told ’em, this is one of the most rewarding years that I’ve had.”
As for Oklahoma, Porter Moser’s squad took down a hot Georgia team and has a date with Kentucky in the second round, with Moser taking exception to the implication the Sooners were even on the bubble to begin with.
“We are a part of it,” Moser said. “I mean, I thought we were above the bubble going into this game. What the conference is, it’s unprecedented. It’s unprecedented of what this league is, what you have to do night in and night out. But we are a part of it. No question. With as many Quad-1 wins that we’ve had, with the resiliency we’ve had. People talk about us playing the best basketball down the stretch in our last six games. We are part of it.”
The team that needed by far the most help, Texas, has had perhaps the most miraculous run of the tournament so far.
Taking down a good Vanderbilt team for another Quad-1 win, Texas then shocked Texas A&M in double overtime, earning a huge resume boost with a date with Tennessee on Friday.
With two Quad-1 wins in two days, Rodney Terry’s Longhorns may have done enough to feel some confidence about hearing their name called on Selection Sunday.
“We played in the best conference in the history of college basketball. Every night was an NCAA Tournament game for us,” Terry said after beating A&M. “I think so much about this time of year is about how you play, do you pass the eye test, or you’re a team that can go into the tournament, make some noise, get things done. Do you have star power? We have star power. We’re playing well. We have our team that we anticipated having play for us right now. We’re playing good basketball.”
The depth of the league has been simply unheard of. Teams that have significant losing records in conference play are expected to get into the tournament, some with ease.
“We got losing records that’s going into the NCAA Tournament. Losing records,” Missouri Head Coach Dennis Gates said after losing to Kentucky on March 8. “When was the last time that happened? Losing conference records.”
Looking at the SEC standings now, both Texas and Oklahoma are 6-12 while Vanderbilt, Arkansas, Georgia and Mississippi State are 8-10.
How could these teams possibly get in the field? Look at the non-conference to truly see the strength of the league.
South Carolina, the worst team in the league, does have a brutal loss to North Florida, but the Gamecocks also have a win over Clemson, one of just three teams firmly in the NCAA Tournament field from the ACC and a projected No. 5 seed. UofSC went 2-16 in the SEC.
LSU, also abysmal, took some poor losses but also had wins over, admittedly, not-so-great power five schools like Kansas State, UCF and Florida State.
Look closer at the other schools, the ones on the bubble, and a completely different picture is painted.
The same Oklahoma team that went 6-12 in conference went 13-0 in non-con play, winning the Battle 4 Atlantis over Louisville (proj. No. 7), Arizona (proj. No. 6) and Providence. The Sooners also downed Georgia Tech, Oklahoma State and, most importantly, Michigan, a projected No. 5 seed.
The same Texas team that went 6-12 finished non-con play 11-2, beating NC State and Syracuse and only losing to UConn (proj. No. 8) and Ohio State (bubble). Despite nothing too flashy there, the SEC has ensured that Texas holds seven Quad-1 wins with a 7-9 record in the first quadrant.
Vanderbilt, Arkansas, Georgia and Mississippi State went a combined 47-5 in the non-con with wins over the likes of St. John’s (proj. No. 3), Michigan, Memphis, SMU, Pittsburgh and more.
All in all, the SEC, top to bottom, went 185-23 out of conference, with other elite schools like Duke, Houston, Iowa State and Texas Tech all having a loss to an SEC school on their resume. In fact, the only two teams projected as a No. 3 seed or higher by Palm that haven’t lost to an SEC school this year were Michigan State and Wisconsin… because they didn’t play any.
It is understandable that some may scoff at the idea of a 19-14 or 20-13 SEC school with a losing conference record making the tournament, but if the NCAA Selection Committee is determined to put the 37 best resumes and best teams in the dance as at-large candidates, the rest of college basketball can have 24 of them… because the SEC deserves 13.
“It’s the best league that’s maybe ever been in any year of college basketball,” Kentucky Head Coach Mark Pope said ahead of the SEC Tournament. “This SEC matters.”
