Jerry Palm, the man who projects brackets for us at CBS Sports, predicted in the preseason that 11 SEC schools would make the 2025 NCAA Tournament. It’s obviously too early to know whether he’ll be right or wrong, but for whatever it’s worth, there are 10 SEC schools in Monday morning’s updated CBS Sports Top 25 And 1 daily college basketball rankings.
Ten!
In order, I have them ranked this way:
No other conference has more than six members in the Top 25 and 1, making it reasonable to suggest no other conference has more quality teams. But that doesn’t necessarily mean that the SEC is the best league in the country. An argument could still be made in favor of the Big 12, which doesn’t have as many teams in the Top 25 And 1 but does have three of the top seven — specifically No. 1 Kansas, No. 5 Iowa State and No. 7 Houston.
Eventually, we’ll settle it all on the court. But, through the first three weeks of this season, there’s no debating that the SEC is performing well. The league’s 16 members have a combined record of 77-10 with victories over Houston, Baylor, Duke, Ohio State and Illinois. None of that will guarantee the conference a Final Four participant come April, of course. But what it does highlight is how the SEC has a lot of teams that seem capable of advancing to San Antonio.
