Bracketology: SEC on pace for historic season in NCAA Tournament
By Lior Lampert
Typically known for being college football's premier conference, the SEC has established itself as the cream of the basketball crop.
The SEC hasn't merely dominated the collegiate hoops landscape this season, they've done so at a historical level:
Joe Lunardi of ESPN's latest 2025 men's NCAA tournament bracketology projections has 13 teams forecasted to represent the SEC in the field of 68. That's nearly one-fifth of the March Madness participants! And it's not like there are a bunch of squads on the bubble — many are firmly in the top 64.
A baker's dozen would set the record for the most NCAA tournament bids from one conference in a season. If they maintain their current pace, the SEC could top when the Big East sending 11 schools to the Big Dance in 2011. Notably, the national champion came from the latter group over a decade ago (UConn).
Bracketology: SEC on pace for historic season in NCAA Tournament
Mathematically speaking, considering how many SEC teams are anticipated to be in the mix in March, history could surely repeat itself. As a collective unit, the odds favor someone from the conference winning the tourney, similar to UConn and the Big East.
Moreover, some of the country's most viable title contenders are from the SEC. Top-ranked Auburn, No. 4 Alabama and No. 5 Florida headline a conference that has developed into a juggernaut.
Six SEC programs sit in the top 18 of ESPN's Basketball Power Index (BPI), a metric that "measures a team's true strength going forward." In other words, these clubs should continue conquering the rest of the competition.
Some of the nation's upper-echelon scoring units are SEC-bred. Alabama, Kentucky, Auburn and Florida rack up points at a high clip on a nightly basis, showing no signs of slowing down. Meanwhile, perennial conference cellar-dwellers like Georgia have burst onto the scene and put themselves on the map.
Overall, the SEC is on a dramatic upswing. The conference is on the verge of rewriting history after seeing zero teams punch their ticket to the NCAA tournament in the 2019-20 campaign.