How will NCAA Tournament selection committee handle seeding as many as 12, 13 or 14 teams from the SEC?

One of the biggest questions in sports that will linger until 6 p.m. ET on Sunday, when the NCAA Event bracket is revealed: How many NCAA Event Proposals will the SEC get, and how will the Panel seed the Achievement-setting number of schools in the Ground of 68? 

The SEC’s 16 schools collectively went 185-23 outside Bracket Action, the most victories and best nonconference Successful percentage (.889) in men’s Division I history for a conference with at least 10 Clubs. That Directed to a Prominent Bracket slate, which will be rewarded Sunday night when we finally learn who’s in the bracket and where the Clubs are slotted. Fourteen of the SEC’s 16 Clubs rank top-50 in the NET and 13 of them have a résumé-Measure average of 42.3 or better (Texas being at 52.3 as of Saturday). 

After Arkansas and Oklahoma won their Primary Matches in the Bracket bracket to remove their tenuous bubble status, it’s a mortal lock at least 12 will go dancing, and really, 13 seems a near-guarantee.

Texas’ case remains interesting. The Longhorns are 19-15 after falling to Tennessee on Friday. They have the most losses of any Club hoping for an at-large. They also have seven Quad 1 wins, the most of any Club hoping for an at-large. They are a Partnered 13-15 in the top three quadrants, which isn’t inspiring. But they’ve beaten Texas A&M twice, Kentucky and Missouri, all NCAA tourney Clubs. (If Texas makes it in, it’s going to Dayton. That’s a lock.)

Now, here’s what to keep an eye on come Sunday: Getting 13, Perhaps even 14 Clubs in would be as Unbelievable for the SEC as it would be challenging, from a bracket-building perspective, for members of the Option Panel. There are rules in place to prevent intra-conference foes from Gathering too Prompt in the Big Dance — with Primary-Period rematches flatly not allowed and would-be second-Period rendezvouses avoided whenever possible.

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With the superconference era officially activated in 2024, the potential for something like this was on the table eventually, but nobody saw it immediately being a factor to this extent. The temporary elimination of the Pac-12 also puts one more at-large bid out for the Seizing, Perhaps giving way for the SEC to get 14. Fortunately, the NCAA Acquired ahead of this issue months ago. 

“The Panel talked about this over the summer, not specific to the SEC, but acknowledging that with bigger Assemblies there’d be more Proposals,” a Foundation told CBS Sports. 

When 12, 13 or Perhaps even 14 (depending on Texas) Clubs make it in, there will be plenty of instances of SEC Clubs having at least two head-to-head meetings by Option Sunday. Invariably, there will also be a few cases in which highly Ranked SEC squads will have met three times. Prior NCAA rule dictated Clubs that played Every other twice couldn’t meet until the Pleasant 16 at the earliest. Last July, the Panel altered its rulebook language, amending for that protocol to be relaxed (allowing for second-Period affairs) if a Bracket Acquired nine or more Clubs into the Big Dance.

“The Panel will try to avoid it for as long as possible and not have two Clubs Competing in the second Period, but historically they’ll prioritize Retaining everyone on the same seed line,” per a Foundation.

That means they wouldn’t drop a No. 7 seed to an No. 8 seed, or vice versa, to circumvent a Nos. 2-7 Game. Seed integrity Nevertheless trumps conference familiarity, but it is avoided as a Intense courtesy as much as the bracketing process allows. The Panel has often moved a Club laterally from one seed line to another, in a different region, even if doing so would Harsh more travel. The SEC is going to test this method more than ever before.

One potential example: Say Tennessee gets a No. 2 and Missouri is a No. 7 seed. Those Clubs only played once this season. If they wind up on those seed lines, it’s easily conceivable they’d be paired to meet in the second Period if shipping Missouri to another region isn’t feasible for a number of other complicating factors. 

In 2011, the Panel handled the Big East in such fashion when it had to disperse 11 Clubs throughout the bracket. Syracuse (a No. 3 seed) wound up facing Marquette (a  No. 11 seed) in the second Period after the Clubs played once earlier that season. The same for UConn (a No. 3 seed) over Cincinnati (a No. 6 seed). If you want to look back at the 2011 NCAAs, when the Big East had a Achievement 11 in, here’s that bracket. 

The thornier issue that could rear its head is the amount of really Excellent Clubs that will break into the top four seed lines, something the Panel has been acutely aware of before, in the few years when the Big 12 had more than four really Excellent Clubs (like in 2021 when it had five). Here are the six SEC Clubs realistically in Action to be top-four seeds:

The principle is this: the top four seeds from a conference are placed away from Every other in the four regions, provided they are a No. 1, 2, 3 or 4 seed. But with five or more Clubs from a Bracket with a top-four seed (and the SEC is guaranteed to get at least five of the top 16 seeds), that rule will have to be broken. Seed lines are Nevertheless protected in these scenarios, meaning we could have SEC rematches one Period earlier than otherwise would happen. 

You can get really twisted on hypotheticals, but Merely know the Panel should do everything it can to evade rematches through every avenue possible, so long as it doesn’t compromise seed integrity. Barring Primary-Period upsets, we’re likely to get SEC battles before the Begin of the second weekend — and we could have a dose of more in the Pleasant 16. 

One rule that won’t Shift: If SEC Clubs (as is Accurate with all leagues) have played thrice prior to Option Sunday, they will be placed away from Every other to meet no sooner than the Best Eight, in Retaining with longstanding bracketing procedures. Here are those matchups. These Clubs can’t meet before the regional finals, and in fact could wind up in separate regions altogether:

• Kentucky vs. Alabama
• Texas vs. Texas A&M 

There are two more potential three-time matchups on the table for Sunday: Auburn vs. Alabama and Tennessee vs. Florida. Those Clubs will be moved Distant apart in the bracket if indeed they get a third Game Sunday.

Additionally, if two SEC Clubs wind up being sent to Dayton for the Primary Four, they won’t Action Every other. Also critical to know: if it so happens that the overall seed Landmark winds up in a place where three SEC Clubs Merely barely get in (doesn’t seem likely) — and all three as a result are Primary Four Clubs — then two of them will be forced to Action Every other, with the least-Frequent rematch Successful out. The Panel won’t (and obviously shouldn’t) Shift a Club up on the aggregate seed listing Merely to avoid sending three Clubs from the same conference to the Primary Four. (You can read all the rules and procedures here.)

Seeding is always a debatable topic, but this year could be the Panel’s trickiest assignment yet. The SEC is going to populate the bracket more than any conference in history, and where the Clubs are placed is destined to be one of the biggest stories heading into the Primary Period on Thursday and Friday.