In recent years, few conferences across college basketball have sent more teams to the NCAA Tournament than the SEC.
As you’d expect as well, this season will likely be no different, as the SEC is in a position to be well-represented in the upcoming NCAA Tournament. The question however remains – How many SEC teams will go dancing?
When asking yourself this question, I believe that you first need to look at the teams who are likely 100% locks to go dancing later this month, regardless of how they finish the regular season.
In the SEC currently, you could make that argument for seven different teams likely as a lock to make the NCAA Tournament – Alabama, Auburn, Florida, Kentucky, Mississippi State, South Carolina, and Tennessee. Of that group, at least two teams (Alabama and Tennessee) are likely to receive a one-through-three seed, while the others are all comfortably in and off the bubble conversation.
As for the remaining teams in NCAA Tournament contention, at least two are squarely on the bubble, Texas A&M and Ole Miss, with both currently on the outside looking in. The other five programs (Arkansas, Georgia, LSU, Missouri, and Vanderbilt) would likely have to win the SEC Tournament to go dancing this March.
How many teams will the SEC send to the NCAA Tournament? Time will ultimately tell, but it seems to be at least seven, with eight to nine also a real possibility as well.