In the event you didn’t benefit from the weeks of depressing public debate over whether or not Alabama or Ole Miss deserved to make the School Soccer Playoff, simply wait till the center of March.
Speaking heads can be evaluating the resumes of the Twelfth-best basketball group within the SEC towards No. 3 or 4 within the Large East.
And it will likely be totally 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 profitable proportion. It gained nearly each marquee matchup it was part of within the nonconference. The Large 12 has been criticized in recent times for its groups feasting on the weakest nonconference schedules you possibly can dream up. That’s not what occurred right here.
Take Florida as Exhibit A.
The Gators ripped via 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 group within the nation and then-No. 1 Tennessee—by 30 factors.
And for an encore … How does a loss to Missouri sound?
A Florida group 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 house… to Missouri.
However wait, who did Missouri beat earlier this season? Oh proper, Kansas. Typically it’s laborious to maintain up.
“We as a employees, as a program, didn’t consider it as a entice sport,” Florida coach Todd Golden mentioned. “Missouri’s excellent. They’re a match group, however coming house, you already know, individuals 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, answerable for ACC newcomer California, simply tried to drag off that nonsense when the ACC has been in decline for what seems 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 have been ranked top-50 within the NCAA’s NET rankings to start out the week, and the worst-rated group by KenPom.com, South Carolina, is best than 11 ACC groups.
In truth, the one SEC group that in all probability 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 group is the primary SEC group not noted of the NCAA Event. They’ll increase the sphere or change the qualification standards sooner than you possibly can say Michael Kidd-Gilchrist.
