{"id":39922,"date":"2025-03-19T04:16:02","date_gmt":"2025-03-19T09:16:02","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/ustower.net\/?p=39922"},"modified":"2025-03-19T04:16:06","modified_gmt":"2025-03-19T09:16:06","slug":"the-football-conference-that-took-college-basketball-by-storm","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/ustower.net\/?p=39922","title":{"rendered":"The football conference that took college basketball by storm"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Auburn, the top college basketball team in the country, was called first on Selection Sunday. A few moments later it was Texas A&M\u2019s turn. Then Ole Miss. Then Mississippi State. By the full reveal of the 2025 NCAA Tournament\u2019s bracket<\/a>, 10 more SEC schools would be named. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The conference has 16 programs \u2014 and an unprecedented 14 made into the NCAA Tournament, including four of the top eight teams in the bracket. The aforementioned Tigers, Florida, Tennessee and Alabama were all seeded No. 1 or No. 2.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cIt\u2019s a dominating performance,\u201d ESPN analyst Fran Fraschilla told NBC News. \u201cI\u2019m not sure there\u2019s ever been a conference that is this clearly far ahead of everyone else in a given year.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Not bad for a league most people associate with football. The SEC has 13 national championships since 2006, routinely brings in the best high school recruits, produces the most NFL talent and boasts fan bases that treat the sport like a religion.  <\/p>\n\n\n\n

But in 2025, the roundball \u2014 not the pigskin \u2014 reigns supreme. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cStatistically it\u2019s the best season for any conference in modern college basketball history,\u201d said Garth Glissman, the SEC\u2019s associate commissioner of men\u2019s basketball.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The secret to the league\u2019s success? Get older, not younger. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

A decade ago, in the \u201cone and done\u201d era of college basketball, top-tier programs were built on their ability to recruit elite high school players. Former Kentucky coach John Calipari, now with Arkansas, was a prime example. He built the Wildcats into a consistent power with 14 freshman classes ranked either No. 1 or No. 2 in the nation, according to On3<\/a>. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

But times have changed since the establishment of \u201cName, Image and Likeness\u201d (NIL) deals and new transfer rules. Since 2021, the NCAA has allowed players to change programs and not sit out a season. And NIL collectives \u2014 groups that raise money with both large and small donors at individual schools \u2014 are able to offer athletes deals to join their programs. Some are reportedly in the millions of dollars<\/a>. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

This is all to say that transfers \u2014 not incoming freshmen \u2014 are the shiny new toys. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThere was a significant period of time in college basketball where high school recruiting rankings dictated a program\u2019s success,\u201d Glissman said. \u201cNow players are able to transfer more freely, and so after each season, they\u2019re effectively free agents. They\u2019re able to assess the landscape and go often to the highest level of basketball available to them and to the best fit. Certainly that has worked to the SEC\u2019s benefit this year.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

No more so than for Auburn, the best team in the country for much of the year. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Tigers (28-5) won the SEC regular season largely thanks to experienced talent. The roster includes six fifth-year or older players, and the starting lineup\u2019s average age is 23.2.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Johni Broome, a first-team All-American who averages 18.9 points and 10.6 rebounds a game, is a Morehead State transfer. Auburn\u2019s second-leading scorer, Chad Baker-Mazara, is at his fourth school. The backcourt of Denver Jones and Miles Kelly transferred in from Florida International and Georgia Tech, respectively.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Auburn coach Bruce Pearl said the program has nine seniors, seven of whom have already graduated. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThere\u2019s very little difference between a 48-year-old man and a 52-year-old man. But there\u2019s a huge difference between an 18-year-old man and a 22-year-old,\u201d he told NBC News. \u201cIt\u2019s huge \u2014 physically, experience, maturity, you name it.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Pearl, who has taken 22 teams to the NCAA Tournament, added his current squad could be his most promising yet. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThis is a team that is capable of winning a national championship,\u201d he said. \u201cIt could be the best team I\u2019ve ever had, but that\u2019s to be determined.\u201d <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Another program that exemplifies this way of thinking is top-seeded Florida. The Gators, with a starting lineup average age of 21.6, just won the SEC Tournament behind senior transfers Walter Clayton Jr. (Iona) and Alijah Martin (Florida Atlantic). <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWe\u2019re still getting some of the best high school players to come to the SEC,\u201d Glissman said, \u201cbut this year in particular, the winning formula in our conference has been older, veteran players.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In contrast, the ACC, long considered one of the premier basketball conferences, has had a down year, partly based on a hesitancy to embrace NIL. According to ESPN<\/a>, \u201cthe ACC\u2019s top 10 men\u2019s basketball players in NIL earnings in January 2024 made less than their peers in the Big East, Big Ten, Big 12 and SEC.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Only four teams from the conference \u2014 No. 1 seed Duke, No. 5 Clemson, No. 8 Louisville and No. 11 North Carolina \u2014 got into the Big Dance. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThey haven\u2019t given their coaches the resources that you need to compete for really good players,\u201d ESPN\u2019s Seth Greenberg told NBC News. \u201cWe live in a world where it\u2019s \u2018pay for play.\u2019 That\u2019s the world we live in. One school [Duke] has done a really good job. Your investment equals your expectation. If you want that expectation of being really good, then you\u2019ve got to match that expectation with your investment.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Greenberg cites Auburn, Alabama, Florida and Tennessee as SEC teams that could make deep postseason runs but isn\u2019t counting out anyone in the conference. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThey\u2019re the deepest, most athletic, most mature and [are] as well-coached as any conference in America,\u201d he said. \u201cWhat they did well ahead of everyone else is they invested in coaches, facilities, infrastructure and now obviously NIL. So they\u2019ve hired world class coaches, given them the resources, and in the climate of college athletics today, that\u2019s a perfect storm.\u201d <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Nbcnews<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Auburn, the top college basketball team in the country, was called first on Selection Sunday. A few moments later it was Texas A&M\u2019s turn. Then Ole Miss. Then Mississippi State. By the full reveal of the 2025 NCAA Tournament\u2019s bracket, 10 more SEC schools would be named.  The conference has 16 programs \u2014 and an unprecedented […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5,"featured_media":39923,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5782],"tags":[22721,32737,8649],"class_list":["post-39922","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-ep","tag-auburn-university","tag-college-basketball","tag-football"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/ustower.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/39922","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/ustower.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/ustower.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ustower.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/5"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ustower.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=39922"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/ustower.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/39922\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":39924,"href":"https:\/\/ustower.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/39922\/revisions\/39924"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ustower.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/39923"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/ustower.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=39922"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ustower.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=39922"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ustower.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=39922"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}