Why is Greg Sankey set on expanding NCAA tourney? Look at SEC men’s hoops strength.

If you visit this column with any frequency, you know I am among those opposed to SEC commissioner Greg Sankey’s drive to expand the NCAA men’s and women’s basketball tournaments beyond the current fields of 68.

Nevertheless, the current college hoops season is providing an illustration for why Sankey would want March Madness to expand. In a development that would have been unthinkable in Bear Bryant’s Southeastern Conference, SEC men’s basketball teams are pillaging college hoops from coast to coast in the early stages of 2024-25.

In the recently completed SEC/ACC Challenge, teams from the Southeastern Conference pummeled those from the Atlantic Coast Conference. Out of 16 games between SEC and ACC men’s hoops teams, the Southeastern Conference squad prevailed in 14 of them.

That was not an outlier. Through games of Wednesday (all stats sited below are through Dec. 11), SEC teams have played 64 games vs. other teams from power conferences and/or Gonzaga. The Southeastern Conference’s record in those games is 48-16.

As a result, the eye test loves SEC men’s hoops.

Voters in this week’s AP Top 25 have three Southeastern Conference teams — No. 1 Tennessee, No. 2 Auburn and No. 5 Kentucky — in the top five. Alabama, at No. 7, and Florida at No. 9, give the SEC half of the top 10.

There are nine — count ’em, nine — Southeastern Conference basketball teams in this week’s AP Top 25.

In the USA Today Coaches poll, the voters are not as bullish on the SEC. There are only eight Southeastern Conference teams in that Top 25.

The computer ratings love SEC men’s hoops.

Through Wednesday night’s contests, the NCAA NET Rankings have three SEC teams — No. 1 Auburn, No. 2 Tennessee and No. 5 Kentucky — in the top five.

In the NET, there are five SEC teams in the top 10, seven in the top 25, 11 in the top 40, 15 in the top 60 teams — and all 16 SEC teams are in the top 94.

Meanwhile, the Pomeroy Ratings have Auburn and Tennessee, respectively, ranked No. 1 and No. 2 with five SEC teams in the top 10, six in the top 25, 11 in the top 40 and all 16 in the top 67.

From top to bottom, SEC teams are doing big things.

Vanderbilt was picked to finish last (16th) in the SEC preseason media poll. The Commodores now stand 9-1 overall and 4-0 vs. other power conference teams.

Oklahoma was projected to finish 15th in the SEC preseason poll. Porter Moser’s Sooners are 9-0 overall, 4-0 vs. power conference opposition — and ranked No. 13 in the AP poll.

Missouri was the No. 13 choice in the SEC preseason ranking. Dennis Gates and the Tigers just beat then-No. 1 Kansas and are 8-1 overall.

Analysis distributed by the basketball statistics guru Evan Miyakawa this week projected the early-season success of the SEC (and the Big Ten) as stealing 2025 NCAA tourney bids from the ACC, the Big East and the Big 12.

Ultimately, it is what happens in March Madness that will determine how this SEC season is evaluated and remembered. Still, early returns suggest that the Southeastern Conference has never before had this depth of good teams in men’s hoops.

That is why, once league play commences this season, the SEC is going to be a bloodbath.

All those strong Southeastern Conference teams that are now dominating the other leagues will be unleashed upon each other. It is going to be the basketball version of a demolition derby.

As a result, there are likely to be a lot of really mediocre (or worse) league records produced in 2024-25 by some really good SEC teams.

That leads us back to Sankey and his insistent advocacy for NCAA Tournament expansion. “How do we include people in these annual, national celebrations that lead to a national champion?” he told ESPN.com some years back.

In 2023, the NCAA Division I Transformation Committee, which Sankey co-chaired, called for raising the participation level across the board in NCAA postseason tournaments for sports in which over 200 schools field teams to 25 percent.

For men’s basketball, which has 364 teams in NCAA Division I this season, applying that 25 percent standard would mean a postseason tournament of at least 91 teams — and probably would require at least 96 participants so as to create a workable bracket.

For multiple reasons, I continue to believe that expanding the NCAA Tournament would be bad for the tourney and would be even worse for college basketball overall because expansion would further diminish a regular season that already lacks meaning.

Still, looking at how many strong SEC men’s basketball teams there are right now — and understanding that job one for a conference commissioner is to look out for the interests of the schools in his/her league — one at least can understand why Sankey has pushed so hard for NCAA tourney expansion.

This story was originally published December 13, 2024 at 7:00 AM.

Mark Story

Lexington Herald-Leader

859-444-4731

Mark Story has worked in the Lexington Herald-Leader sports department since Aug. 27, 1990, and has been a Herald-Leader sports columnist since 2001. I have covered every Kentucky-Louisville football game since 1994, every UK-U of L basketball game but three since 1996-97 and every Kentucky Derby since 1994. Support my work with a digital subscription