With their March Madness wins on Sunday, Ole Miss and Alabama confirmed what many college basketball fans had known: The SEC was the best conference in the country this season.
It was a wild weekend in college basketball. Both the first and second rounds of the 2025 edition of March Madness are in the books. And as usual, there were some upsets and highlight reel-making buzzer-beaters. However, there was another narrative that developed over the weekend. That being the SEC is just as nasty in basketball as they are in football.
Over the last decade, the SEC has turned itself into a super conference in football. Featuring legendary programs like the Alabama Crimson Tide, LSU Tigers, Texas Longhorns, Georgia Bulldogs, Ole Miss Rebels, and Florida Gators. However, their member schools have also developed some strong basketball programs and they made history on Sunday.
Alabama and Ole Miss wins make March Madness history with most SEC teams in Sweet 16
When Alabama dismantled St. Mary’s yesterday, they helped the SEC tie the ACC for the record of most teams from one conference to reach the SEC at six. However, a couple of hours later, the record that stood for nine years was shattered when Ole Miss scored a big upset victory over No. 3 seed Iowa State. The conference will now own seven of the 16 teams still playing in the 2025 edition of March Madness.
Those seven teams are Ole Miss, Alabama, Auburn, Florida, Arkansas, Kentucky, and Tennessee. Fourteen of the SEC’s 16 teams received NCAA tournament bids last weekend. That also earned the conference another record when they surpassed the previous record of 11, set by the Big East in 2011.
Auburn, Florida, Alabama, Tennessee, Kentucky, and Texas A&M all received top-four seeds this year, while the conference also has the biggest surprise team in the Sweet 16 with 10-seed Arkansas.
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