The SEC Is Dominating College Basketball
The SEC has become more dominant in basketball than it has in football. This season, the SEC dominated their competition early in the year. During the SEC/ACC challenge, the SEC held a record of 9-0 compared to the ACC after the first day. They would go on to win the challenge 14-2. The winning didn’t stop after that; before conference play started a few weeks ago, the SEC held a winning percentage of 88.9%, the highest since the ACC in 2002-03. The rankings reflect this: they currently have nine top 25 teams and five in the top 10. The analysts saw a change coming as the SEC had an impressive offseason, during which several teams secured top transfers and top freshmen, but they did not believe it would lead to this kind of success.
The best team this year has been the Auburn Tigers, who are 15-1. The analytics back up Auburn’s case as the best team as well; they rank first in offensive efficiency, 23rd in defensive efficiency, and seventh in effective field goal percentage, and they are 7-1 versus Quad 1 teams. Their roster includes returners from previous years, a top freshman, and several key transfers; this combination is how you succeed in college basketball in 2025. Another team that I’ve been incredibly impressed with this year is the fifth-ranked Florida Gators. Taking a similar approach in roster construction, Florida has boasted a record of 15-1 this year and has been dismantling their opponents. Another SEC team, Tennessee, previously ranked number one, figured this out last week when Florida beat them 73-43. Florida took a quick 12-0 lead in the game and never looked back, smothering Tennessee, holding them to a measly 21% from the field, while dominating physically outrebounding them by nearly 20.
Looking more closely at analytics, the SEC is having one of the best years of any conference. As a conference, they lead in offensive efficiency, field goal percentage, turnover percentage, offensive rebounding percentage, two-point percentage, two-point defense percentage, and three-point defense percentage. They play harder, more physically, and more controlled. That’s a good recipe for success. The SEC hasn’t won a National Championship since Kentucky in 2012, but this year looks different, with several teams I believe can go on to win. They are the most dominant and deepest conference in the league, and later today, you can tune into some exciting SEC matchups: #1 Auburn vs. #15 Mississippi St., #21 Ole Miss vs. #4 Alabama, #11 Texas A&M vs. #8 Kentucky, and #5 Florida vs. Missouri.
