Bruce Pearl will be remembered as central figure in SEC's rise to elite basketball conference beyond retirement

As Bruce Pearl announces his retirement from coaching, his role in building up the Auburn basketball program into a national power and consistent NCAA Tournament contender cannot be overlooked. Beyond that, he deserves an immense amount of credit for becoming one of the central figures in building up the SEC’s standing within the sport.

Pearl made his first appearance in the SEC as the Tennessee head coach, a position he held from 2005 to 2011 with great success which included two Coach of the Year honors and an SEC regular season title. After an investigation into recruiting violations, his career plans hit a snag.

In a position where many coaches have faded into obscurity, Pearl did the opposite. In 2014, he took the Auburn job with a tall task ahead. Now at the helm of a program which had not seen the NCAA Tournament in a decade, he started the long process of rebuilding from the ground up.

Two Final Four appearances later, with two more SEC Coach of the Year awards in his cabinet and five more conference titles to his name between the regular season and tournament, he is an Auburn legend who set a high bar as the school’s winningest coach.

Bruce Pearl helps change the SEC

The SEC might always be a football conference, after all that’s where the most money flows, but over the past decade there has been a steady shift in the way basketball is viewed and promoted. What started as an initiative by former commissioner Mike Slive to promote sports beyond the gridiron with the SEC Network, quickly turned into an arms race for the best coaches and players on the hardwood.

Bruce Pearl not only served as one of the elder statesmen among the new group of elite coaches, but served as the golden example for what can happen when commitment, continuity and investment match the end goal. In a conference where only Kentucky and Florida and Arkansas have contributed to the SEC national titles, the remaining 13 schools now see a clear path to joining those ranks.

“There were people that said, even as far back as forty years ago, if a team could ever get to the Final Four, it would change the dynamics,” Paul Finebaum said about the SEC’s history in the sport of basketball. “But I don’t think that would have even mattered. I think it just took time and I think it took the acceptance of basketball

“I really think it’s been the advance of the coaching. These guys? I mean, Bruce Pearl and Nate Oats are two of the three or four best coaches in America and I think the public appreciates that.”

Yes, even the arrival of Alabama’s head coach has been credited by many to Bruce Pearl’s rise as a central figure in the SEC. After all, when one rival sees the other build a gap there is a new emphasis placed on successfully overthrowing things.

“I just think that what Coach (Pearl) has been able to do at Auburn has raised the level of expectations at other schools in this league,” his own son Steven Pearl said of the rivalry, and SEC at-large. “And they said, ‘Listen, if Auburn can do it, we can do it at a high level too if we get the right person like Auburn did.’”

Now, it is Steven Pearl who sits at the end of the bench. Auburn will keep a degree of continuity, entering a new era with a familiar cast of characters. Even Bruce, who received much interest from political figures, will stay close to the program in a new role.

How things play out from here remain to be seen, but throughout the next season and for years to come, the fingerprints of Bruce Pearl and the oversized impact of his tenure will be visible with every program’s commitment to winning after seeing what can happen with one of these elite coaches.