For those who didn’t benefit from the weeks of depressing public debate over whether or not Alabama or Ole Miss deserved to make the Faculty Soccer Playoff, simply wait till the center of March.
Speaking heads might be evaluating the resumes of the Twelfth-best basketball workforce within the SEC towards No. 3 or 4 within the Huge East.
And it is going to be absolutely justified.
Males’s basketball is the game the place “It simply means extra” in 2025, and the SEC is powerful sufficient to interrupt the document for single bids from a convention by getting 12 groups in.
You can begin with the human rankings, the place 5 of the highest eight groups within the AP ballot are SEC stalwarts, and Auburn simply changed Tennessee as king of the hill. A whopping 9 SEC groups—greater than half the league—are ranked this week, together with everybody’s favourite basketball sleeping large, Georgia, which has knocked off three ranked groups in 2024-25.
Earlier than convention play started, the SEC mixed for a ridiculous .889 successful proportion. It received nearly each marquee matchup it was part of within the nonconference. The Huge 12 has been criticized in recent times for its groups feasting on the weakest nonconference schedules you may dream up. That’s not what occurred right here.
Take Florida as Exhibit A.
The Gators ripped by way of Florida State, Wake Forest, Virginia and Arizona State earlier than assembly North Carolina. It was a massive-air-quotes “impartial courtroom” sport in Charlotte. Florida proved itself with a gritty 90-84 win.
The Gators entered SEC motion 13-0, promptly misplaced 106-100 at Kentucky, then shredded the final unbeaten workforce within the nation and then-No. 1 Tennessee—by 30 factors.
And for an encore … How does a loss to Missouri sound?
A Florida workforce stacked with large rebounders like Alex Condon and Rueben Chinyelu and harmful shooters like Waler Clayton Jr. and Alijah Martin was outrebounded 15-12 on the offensive glass and outshot 11-9 from the 3-point arc Tuesday… at residence… to Missouri.
However wait, who did Missouri beat earlier this season? Oh proper, Kansas. Generally it’s arduous to maintain up.
“We as a workers, as a program, didn’t consider it as a lure sport,” Florida coach Todd Golden mentioned. “Missouri’s excellent. They’re a match workforce, however coming residence, you realize, folks say, ‘Oh, the schedule is (lightening) up.’ It’s simply not correct on this league.”
Each coach of a Energy 5 program likes to do the “our convention is the hardest” bit. Mark Madsen, in control of ACC newcomer California, simply tried to drag off that nonsense when the ACC has been in decline for what appears like 5 years now.
The hardest convention is the deepest one, and groups can’t take an evening off within the SEC, the place 14 of 16 groups had been ranked top-50 within the NCAA’s NET rankings to start out the week, and the worst-rated workforce by KenPom.com, South Carolina, is healthier than 11 ACC groups.
The truth is, the one SEC workforce that most likely doesn’t scare anybody proper now could be the one sitting alone at 0-4 within the standings, Arkansas, and good ol’ Coach Cal.
Lord assist us all if John Calipari’s workforce is the primary SEC workforce unnoticed of the NCAA Event. They’ll increase the sphere or change the qualification standards quicker than you may say Michael Kidd-Gilchrist.
