SEC Shatters NCAA Tournament Record for Most Teams in Field

Karl Rasmussen | Mar 16, 2025

Auburn Tigers center Dylan Cardwell / Denny Simmons / The Tennessean / USA TODAY NETWORK via Imagn Images

The SEC will be incredibly well represented at the 2025 men's NCAA tournament.

Fourteen teams from the SEC were included in the field for this year's March Madness bracket, shattering the previous record for most bids by a single conference in NCAA tournament history.

The previous record was set in 2011 when 11 of the Big East's 16 teams qualified for the tournament. The new-look SEC trumped that mark, with 14 teams making the field in 2025.

The SEC teams in this year's dance include No. 1 overall seed Auburn, Florida, Alabama, Tennessee, Texas A&M, Kentucky, Ole Miss, Missouri, Mississippi State, Georgia, Vanderbilt, Arkansas, Oklahoma and Texas.

Despite the Sooners and Longhorns both finishing conference play with 6–12 records, the two SEC newcomers still made the NCAA tournament, a testament to how loaded the conference is. Only two teams from the SEC did not make the field, LSU and South Carolina, both of whom had losing records and won three or fewer games in conference play.

Behind the SEC in terms of NCAA tournament representation were the Big Ten and Big 12, who had eight and seven teams qualify for the field, respectively.

---

More College Basketball on Sports Illustrated

feed