Why The SEC will send 12 teams to the tournament

Back in 2011, the Big East sent 11 teams to March Madness. No other conference has ever sent more teams in a single season. The record has stood for 13 years, and it may very soon extend to 14. After all, most conferences only have around 14 teams, and the likelihood of any conference being that competitive is incredibly slim. That was until this season.

The SEC, more known for their success in football, brought Oklahoma and Texas into the fold. With the SEC now at 16 teams, they put themselves in a position to challenge for that record with the depth in the ranks. Then, the season began.

The SEC is unquestionably the best conference in college basketball this season. It ranks as the best conference in the country according to the NET, a tool used by the NCAA Tournament Committee to evaluate the resume of each team. It categorizes each team by their wins and losses and the quality of their opponents. As a conference, the SEC has 14 of the top 50 teams in the NET and seven of the top 20.

Now it comes down to which SEC teams will make the tournament. The 14 that sit inside the top 50 of the NET all have a case. The only teams that are out of it are LSU and South Carolina. As for the rest of the field, they can be categorized into locks, comfortably in and bubble teams.

Locks: Auburn, Alabama, Kentucky, Florida and Tennessee

Comfortably in: Ole Miss, Mississippi State, Texas A&M and Georgia

Bubble: Oklahoma, Texas, Arkansas, Missouri and Vanderbilt

Based on these very official categories, the SEC already has nine teams penciled into the field. They only need three more to break the record. Missouri has the best resume of the bubble teams thanks to their wins over No. 1 Kansas and No. 5 Florida. The Tigers also sit one game back of first place in the SEC.

As long as they continue to play well and beat the other bubble teams on their schedule, they could move up to the comfortable category soon.

Oklahoma also has a strong case to make the tournament with wins over No. 24 Arizona, No. 24 Michigan and Louisville. They need to get out of the funk they have been in since conference play started, however. Arkansas also needs to put an end to their recent skid. The Razorbacks have dropped four straight including a loss on the road against unranked LSU. There will be plenty of opportunities considering they play in the toughest conference in the country, but all but one of their losses have come against teams currently ranked in the Top 25.

Coach John Calipari has some work to do. As for Texas, they are in a similar situation to Arkansas where they have no bad losses, but they need quality wins. And finally the Vanderbilt Commodores. The Commodores had a strong non-conference showing, with their only loss coming to the Drake Bulldogs.

The Commodores need one or two signature wins, and if they get them they will be on the right side of the bubble come Selection Sunday.

Looking at the current landscape of college basketball, the SEC is in an incredibly strong position in regards to breaking the record for most teams in one tournament. My official prediction is 12 teams make the field with Missouri and Oklahoma surviving life on the bubble. We will find out whether or not the SEC makes history in two months.

Nate Johns is a first-year majoring in broadcast journalism. To contact him, email jzn5275@psu.edu.