Evaluating what the SEC's poor NCAA Tournament means for the conference
In 2024, it just means more… early NCAA Tournament exits for the SEC. The conference got eight teams into this year’s field but after four days of play, only two of those remain in Alabama and Tennessee.
In basic math, when the field is cut from 64 down to 16, that’s 75% of the teams gone, and for the SEC, going from eight to two is losing 75% of your teams. Except every SEC team was a 9-seed or higher, meaning they were roundly expected to win their first, and in many cases, their second games.
Alas, Kentucky and Auburn fell in the first round, Mississippi State no-showed vs. the other MSU and South Carolina was steamrolled by Oregon all in round one as higher seeds than their opponent. So, is this failure of an NCAA Tournament given their seeding an indictment on the SEC as a whole this season?
On3’s James Fletcher explained to Andy Staples Monday morning on the On3 YouTube channel that while the tourney record isn’t the be-all end-all, the league did miss out on a big opportunity after a strong regular season.
“The SEC really had a chance to build that momentum,” explained Fletcher. “They had Mississippi State have a late surge to make sure they were in the field, Texas A&M gets in the field late, and then we see a struggle from them to get it done in the NCAA Tournament.”
After the pleas from commissioner Greg Sankey to get as many SEC teams as possible in the Big Dance, Fletcher wonders what his long-term goal is with the tournament.
“What is it Greg Sankey is looking to get out of this? Because if you add in Texas and Oklahoma, Oklahoma wasn’t even in the NCAA Tournament, and Texas, they went out in the first weekend, to Tennessee, mind you. There are a lot of questions that are going to be raised about the SEC after this performance.”
Despite a brutal showing this March, Fletcher doubts the SEC is losing any credibility going forward. Chalk it up to the madness of this month, he says.
“I don’t think it has any long term implications. I don’t think it means anything beyond that there were upsets in March Madness, just like there always are.”
Andy Staples did see one important takeaway from bubble teams like Mississippi State and Texas A&M getting knocked out in the first weekend, though.
“I think it means leave the Tournament alone,” he asserted. “It’s fine at 68. People get mad at me because I’m a fan of them going to 12 in football. It’s okay to feel like four is not enough in football, but 68 is enough in basketball. There’s a wide gulf between those two numbers.”