The SEC just doesn’t know when to quit. It’s bad enough we had their outlandish football takes shoved down our throats. Now we’re forced to listen to their arrogance in basketball too.
It’s honestly a little more understandable from a basketball perspective because the SEC truly has been dominant this year. According to an ESPN story, the SEC is 30-4 against ACC, 14-2 against the Big 12 and 10-9 against the Big Ten.
They deserve to have the most conference teams in the tournament field. It doesn’t mean we want to hear about it. Certainly not from SEC commissioner Greg Sankey at that.
The SEC’s dominance brings on the other argument of how many of their bubble teams should get the advantage over, say, some Mountain West teams. The record for teams from a single conference is the Big East getting 11 in the tournament in 2011.
The ‘unicorn league’ SEC is already plotting to steal mid-major bid after dominant season
Now I’m not saying the NCAA Tournament has to give handouts to teams just because they had a good season. What makes the NCAA Tournament special is it truly feels rewarding to get in, to hear your school called on Selection Sunday and to see your name in the official bracket.
The SEC and its pursuit to monopolizing college athletics is leading to taking that away from teams that do deserve it. I think this year, it’s fair to think 14 SEC teams should be in. But how many SEC teams should be in at the expense of a mid-major?
The Mountain West is tied for the third most teams in the NCAA Tournament by Joe Lunardi’s projections with five teams. Only the Big Ten and the SEC have more. And if you do give the SEC more teams, maybe take away a bid from the other power conferences that’s struggled.
For example, the ACC probably shouldn’t have more than three or four teams in the tournament this year. The Big 12 could probably get away with four teams instead of five.
The SEC getting 14 teams and pushing qualified mid-major teams to the side is the exact opposite of the benefits to the NCAA Tournament. Again, this isn’t to say the committee needs to take every good mid-major team.
But NET ranking isn’t a fair ranking when determining which bubble teams should get in. Of course a bubble team in a power conference is going to have a better NET ranking. For example, how much would Kansas’ NET have plummeted had they not been in the Big 12?
Or a team like Memphis, how much would they have benefitted from playing in a stronger conference? They have a strong Quad 1 record for a non-power conference team, but can’t crack the top 40. Their only Quad 1 loss was to Auburn.
That’s why the SEC will bulldoze the mid-major teams out of the way because nearly every ranking system is set up to keep the heavyweight conferences in front. While I understand that, March Madness is different than the College Football Playoff.
We want to see the teams that might not get back to the tournament for decades and see if they can stun a team that overlooked them. The SEC is doing everything they can to take that away from us, even if it is somewhat justified.