The Southeastern Conference is simply stacked this season in men’s basketball.
Eight of the current Associated Press’ Top 25 teams, including four of the top six, hail from the SEC. It’s much the same in the NCAA’s current NET rankings with 14 SEC squads in the top 50, including six of the top 14.
All signs point to the SEC sending 10-plus teams to the NCAA Tournament when the 68-team bracket is revealed March 16 on Selection Sunday.
But will the SEC break the all-time men’s Big Dance conference record of 11 teams, currently held by the 2011 Big East Conference? We examine that possibility below.
You can even bet on the number of SEC NCAA bids at one of our top-ranked sports betting sites.
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Latest From The Lines: 3 Potential Mid-Major Cinderellas
Projections have 13 SEC teams punching Big Dance tickets
With a little more than a week left in the regular season, bracketologists are working overtime.
Bracket Matrix amalgamates NCAA tourney projections from 115 top-rated sources, including ESPN, CBS Sports and the NCAA.com‘s Andy Katz. And as of Thursday, the consensus 68-team NCAA field would include 13 of the 16 current SEC teams, with a 14th (Georgia) falling among the first four out.
That consensus bracket includes three SEC No. 1 seeds (Auburn, Alabama and Florida), a pair of No. 2 seeds (Tennessee and Texas A&M) and a No. 3 (Kentucky), allotting six of the field’s top-16 seeds to the conference.
Rounding out the Bracket Matrix SEC contingent were Missouri (No. 5 seed), Mississippi State (6), Ole Miss (7), Vanderbilt (10), Oklahoma (11), Texas (11) and Arkansas (11).
Second on just-missed list was Georgia (17-11), which currently stands 12th in the SEC with a 5-10 conference record.
DraftKings Sportsbook already is populating its Madness Props list. Included among those is the Number of 2025 SEC NCAA Tournament teams, set at Over (+105 odds) or Under (-135) 12.5 as of Thursday.
DK also has posted a SEC vs. The Field national championship prop with odds of SEC +120, Field -150 as of Thursday.
Big East set standard with 11 NCAA tourney bids in 2011
Since the tournament expanded to 64 teams in 1985, a conference has sent nine teams to the Big Dance on five different occasions. The Atlantic Coast Conference (2017 and 2018) and Big Ten (2021 and 2022) have each done so twice while the Big East accomplished the feat as well in 2012.
But in the prior season (2011), the Big East set the men’s standard with a record 11 of its 16 teams earning NCAA Tournament bids. It stands as the only season in which a men’s hoops conference has had double-digit NCAA qualifiers.
Each of those 11 Big East qualifiers in 2011 won 21 or more games, and the conference wound up with five teams seeded among the top 16, including East Region No. 1 Pittsburgh and Southwest Region No. 2 Notre Dame.
Overall, the Big East finished with a 13-10 NCAA tourney record that spring.
However, only two of the conference’s 11 entrants (East 11-seed Marquette and West 3-seed Connecticut) advanced as far as the Sweet 16. But the Huskies, powered by tourney Most Outstanding Player Kemba Walker, wound up winning it all, beating Southeast eighth-seeded Cinderella Butler, 53-41, in the championship game.
It must be noted, though, that this season is set up for the conference qualification record to fall. The Pac-12 Conference disbanded after last season, and the other major conferences have expanded via the domino effect, with the Big Ten and ACC now featuring 18 teams apiece and the SEC and Big 12 each boasting 16.
SEC has featured record 8 NCAA teams each of last 2 seasons
SEC men’s hoops has picked up where it left off in recent seasons.
In each of the last two men’s NCAA Tournaments, the SEC has matched its record, first set in 2018, with eight Big Dance bids.
In 2023, the eight SEC squads finished a combined 9-8 in the bracket, with three of those eight (South 1-seed Alabama, East 4-seed Tennessee and West 8-seed Arkansas) advancing as far as the Sweet 16 before losing.
Last March, the eight SEC teams went a combined 8-8 with two Sweet 16 qualifiers (Midwest 2-seed Tennessee and West 4-seed Alabama). The Volunteers wound up falling in the Elite Eight while the Crimson Tide made it to the Final Four before succumbing to eventual national-champion UConn, 86-72.
In 2018, the eight SEC qualifiers were a combined 8-8 in the Big Dance with two of those teams (South 5-seed Kentucky and West 7-seed Texas A&M) advancing as far as the Sweet 16.
