I crunched some numbers on SEC teams since we expanded to 12 and adopted the 16-game schedule.
65 SEC teams have finished with 11 or more wins in the regular season + SEC Tournament. All but one has received an NCAA Tournament invite, and the 1 was the 2003 Georgia team that voluntarily left itself out.
18 SEC teams have finished with 10 wins in the regular season + SEC Tournament. 16 of those have received NCAA Tournament bids, the two not getting them being 1994 Mississippi State and 1999 Mississippi State.
6 of 21 SEC with 9 wins have been selected. Georgia got in after winning the SEC Tournament last year with 8 wins, and Alabama went 7-9, lost the first game in the SECT and got in anyway in 2003.
More observations:
All teams with 9 SEC wins have gotten NIT invites, as have all but 3 with 8 wins and the majority with 7 wins. We ought to be at least in the NIT even if we lose to Georgia.
If we beat Georgia and lose game 2, we'll be the 3rd 10-win team not to make the NCAA Tournament, all 3 of which are MSU teams.
If we win 2 games and lose game 3, we'll be the first ever 11-win team not to get an invite. That would suck a lot.
If we win 3 games and lose the final, we'll presumably be the first ever 12-win team not selected, even though the 11 previous teams with 12 SEC wins have averaged a 5.2 seed in the NCAA Tournament, an average brought down a good bit by Kentucky's 11 seed last year.
65 SEC teams have finished with 11 or more wins in the regular season + SEC Tournament. All but one has received an NCAA Tournament invite, and the 1 was the 2003 Georgia team that voluntarily left itself out.
18 SEC teams have finished with 10 wins in the regular season + SEC Tournament. 16 of those have received NCAA Tournament bids, the two not getting them being 1994 Mississippi State and 1999 Mississippi State.
6 of 21 SEC with 9 wins have been selected. Georgia got in after winning the SEC Tournament last year with 8 wins, and Alabama went 7-9, lost the first game in the SECT and got in anyway in 2003.
More observations:
All teams with 9 SEC wins have gotten NIT invites, as have all but 3 with 8 wins and the majority with 7 wins. We ought to be at least in the NIT even if we lose to Georgia.
If we beat Georgia and lose game 2, we'll be the 3rd 10-win team not to make the NCAA Tournament, all 3 of which are MSU teams.
If we win 2 games and lose game 3, we'll be the first ever 11-win team not to get an invite. That would suck a lot.
If we win 3 games and lose the final, we'll presumably be the first ever 12-win team not selected, even though the 11 previous teams with 12 SEC wins have averaged a 5.2 seed in the NCAA Tournament, an average brought down a good bit by Kentucky's 11 seed last year.