One thing has been clear for most of this women's college basketball season: the SEC and the Big Ten are the two best conferences in the nation.
The ACC is having a shockingly down year. The Big 12 is deep, but lacks a bona fide title contender, as we've learned this past week, with Iowa State losing twice and TCU losing once. The Big East has arguably the best team in the nation, but lacks much beyond that.
But between the SEC and Big Ten, the SEC is proving to be the tougher — and deeper — conference. Let's talk about that depth and why the SEC is even better than you probably think it is.
The SEC has two of the four "real" title contenders
Four teams have separated from the pack this season and look to be cruising to No. 1 seeds. Sure, things can change between now and then, and the randomness of the NCAA Tournament means all four probably won't make the Final Four, but at this point, UConn, Texas, South Carolina and UCLA look like the four best teams in the nation.
And notice which conference has half of those teams? Yep, it's the SEC.
Texas has already picked up two wins bigger than any other team in the nation, knocking off UCLA and South Carolina on consecutive days in November. The undefeated Longhorns have a tough stretch coming up with back-to-back road games against LSU and South Carolina, so the undefeated mark might not last too much longer, but you can easily say that what this team has done so far has been the most impressive thing we've seen out of anyone.
Then there are the Gamecocks. Sure, they lost to the Horns, but they've been dominant outside of that game, posting the fourth-best net rating in the country and picking up big wins over USC and Louisville.
Both of these teams have what it takes to win the national championship, but the SEC's greatness goes beyond those two teams.
SEC depth beats out the depth of any other conference
LSU spent most of the season ranked No. 5 in the AP poll, but back-to-back losses to Kentucky and Vanderbilt dropped the Tigers. Here's the thing, though: I don't believe those losses really say anything about LSU. Instead, they highlight that the top teams in the SEC are all really close to each other and can beat anyone.
Vanderbilt, for example, remains undefeated, starting the season a perfect 16-0, but the win over LSU was only by four points, which happens to be one of just two wins this season by fewer than 10 points. The two teams just happened to be very evenly matched.
Kentucky beat LSU as well, but the SEC's depth struck the Wildcats hard on Thursday with a 13-point loss to Alabama. That's a bad loss, right?
Ehh. The Crimson Tide are 16-1 on the year, with the one loss coming to South Carolina. Yeah, that loss was a blowout, but Alabama has largely been in control for every other game it's played, with only two other games even coming down to single digits. That includes a huge resume-building win over Minnesota.
Oklahoma has been one of the nation's best teams, led by the duo of Aaliyah Chavez and Raegan Beers. The team entered conference play with just one loss to UCLA, beating Florida State, NC State and Oklahoma State, but lost on Thursday to Ole Miss. The Rebels have three losses this season, but also had a big non-conference win over Notre Dame.
See, here's the thing: beyond Texas, South Carolina and potentially Vanderbilt, the next tier of SEC teams are going to beat up on each other all season. However, you can look to their non-conference results to see that these are all good teams. They'll finish with a few more losses than their talent level might indicate that they should, but they'll all be very dangerous come March.