The four bottom-seeded teams in the conference – No. 14 LSU, No. 13 Ole Miss, No. 12 South Carolina, and No. 11 Georgia – get things started with an ostensible play-in round Thursday night.
The league’s best four teams – No. 1 Alabama, No. 2 Texas A&M, No. 3 Kentucky and No. 4 Missouri – are off until the quarterfinals begin Friday. Everyone else in the SEC plays Thursday.
The league is expected to have seven teams make the NCAA Tournament with an eighth, Mississippi State on the bubble. Immediate losses by MSU, Arkansas or Auburn could be enough to knock them off the bubble (even if it’s unlikely for the Razorbacks or Tigers) and a deep run from Vanderbilt could lift the Commodores in.
The tourney starts from Bridgestone Arena in Nashville, Tennessee, at 6 p.m.