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Predicting how many SEC teams are going to make the NCAA Tournament

How many teams can the SEC get into the Big Dance? Let's project how many squads from the SEC will play in March Madness.
ByGraham Harmon|
Jan 25, 2025; Auburn, Alabama, USA; Auburn Tigers forward Chaney Johnson (31) drives against Tennessee Volunteers forward Felix Okpara (34) during the second half at Neville Arena. Auburn came from behind in the last minute to win the game. Mandatory Credit: John Reed-Imagn Images
Jan 25, 2025; Auburn, Alabama, USA; Auburn Tigers forward Chaney Johnson (31) drives against Tennessee Volunteers forward Felix Okpara (34) during the second half at Neville Arena. Auburn came from behind in the last minute to win the game. Mandatory Credit: John Reed-Imagn Images | John Reed-Imagn Images

SEC basketball has had some glory years, but this may be the best one yet. The conference in the aggregate is operating at a level that I'm not sure we've seen in recent memory, with all of its teams fielding formidable squads.

Even in the previous up years for the conference, you'd have the odd team that was a complete dud. Not so this season. Every single team from the SEC is listed in the top 100 in the NET rankings, and thirteen of the sixteen squads are in the top 50: a feat that not many conferences could claim— certainly none the size of the SEC (though the Big 10 is close).

Here is how the SEC currently stacks up, with the NET rankings on the left and team name on the right:

(1) Auburn
(4) Tennessee
(5) Florida
(6) Alabama
(11) Kentucky
(15) Texas A&M
(21) Ole Miss
(24) Mississippi State
(26) Missouri
(31) Texas
(35) Georgia
(37) Vanderbilt
(45) Oklahoma
(56) Arkansas
(66) LSU
(93) South Carolina

All of these rankings are subject to change, as the NET updates daily, but that's an absurdly stacked 16-team group. So just how many of these teams can make it into the Big Dance?

How many SEC basketball teams will play in March Madness?

I think it would take a collapse of major proportions for anyone in the top half of the conference to miss out on the NCAA Tournament. Mississippi State, the lowest-ranked team in the top half of the conference, is sitting at 16-5, with all of their losses to quad one or two teams.

Things get a little bit dicey after that. Missouri and Vanderbilt stand a great shot, but Texas and Georgia have very poor Q1 records. OU doesn't have quite the strength of schedule right now, but they're firmly a bubble team.

Arkansas is where things start to look pretty unfavorable. They are 2-8 in Q1 and Q2 games, and will have to work hard the rest of the year to make it into the Big Dance. LSU and South Carolina would need big late-sesason runs to stack up some wins in Q1 and Q2 as well.

At this point, the SEC could get as many as 13 teams into the dance, but I'll predict 11 just to be safe. If that comes to pass, it will be a major feather in the cap of the conference, and signal a shift in the power structure of college basketball more broadly.

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