The SEC getting a record 14 teams in the 2025 NCAA men’s basketball tournament “marks a zenith of SEC Commissioner Greg Sankey’s years-long efforts for a basketball revolution,” according to Blake Toppmeyer of USA TODAY. The bid haul “accounts for more than 20%” of the bracket. The Big East previously set the record for most NCAA bids with 11 in 2011. Sankey’s push “began in earnest in 2016″ after the SEC qualified just three teams for the NCAA Tournament. Toppmeyer wrote “smarter scheduling, good facilities and strong financial commitment” could explain the SEC’s uprising. Toppmeyer: “All of that matters.” The starting point, however, was the conference becoming “home to the best collection of college basketball coaches.” The SEC’s sheer volume of qualifiers affords the conference “a great opportunity to produce a national champion for the first time since 2012 Kentucky.” Auburn and Florida earning No. 1 seeds and Tennessee and Alabama grabbing No. 2 seeds also “buoys the SEC’s odds” (USA TODAY, 3/16).
STEADY RISE: The WALL STREET JOURNAL’s Laine Higgins wrote how the SEC “went from basketball backwater to March Madness mainstay isn’t hard to understand.” Sankey told the SEC basketball coaches at a leaguewide meeting in 2017 he “wanted them to replicate college softball’s 2017 postseason,” in which all 13 SEC teams were invited to compete in the NCAA championship. The commissioner hired former Big East Commissioner Mike Tranghese to serve as a basketball adviser. Former men’s basketball coach Dan Leibovitz was also hired to “facilitate relationships with SEC coaches.” Tranghese soon came to understand that the “conference’s pigskin-worshipping reputation was part of the problem.” Basketball coaches “were frustrated with playing second fiddle to football.” Tranghese, though, “encouraged them to use it to their advantage.” Higgins wrote the standard of coaching “also needed to improve.” Athletic directors “were making bad hires.” So, Tranghese “inserted himself into the hiring process, suggesting candidates from beyond the SEC’s traditional geographic footprint” (WALL STREET JOURNAL, 3/16).
ROOM TO IMPROVE: SPORTS BUSINESS JOURNAL’s Ben Portnoy writes the fact that the SEC is thriving “comes in the midst of a college basketball landscape that’s trying to find its footing beyond March Madness” and the “semi-standalone attention it receives” between the end of the college football and NFL seasons. SEC Associate Commissioner for Men’s Basketball Garth Glissman -- a member of the NCAA men’s basketball oversight committee -- suggests “more high-profile matchups at the beginning of the season could assist in driving ratings and attention earlier in the year.” Glissman: “My message to college basketball is we have to work harder to compete for our fans. Our fans and people everywhere are increasingly distracted. They have more entertainment options than before, and so we have to be more strategic with our scheduling” (SPORTS BUSINESS JOURNAL, 3/17 issue).
WORRYING SIGHT FOR ACC: In Norfolk, David Teel wrote with four qualifiers from the ACC, its representation “lags far behind the other power conferences with at least 16 members.” The bracket includes eight from the Big Ten, seven from the Big 12 and the aforementioned 14 from the SEC. Teel: “The ACC grew to 18 teams this season, making four bids an XXL problem. Commissioner Jim Phillips knows it, as do the league’s athletic directors and coaches” (Norfolk VIRGINIAN-PILOT, 3/16).
