Is SEC Tournament Champ Guaranteed to be No. 1 overall?
Will the No. 1 overall seed in the NCAA Tournament be whoever wins the SEC Tournament?
With the exception of a few polls that put Florida State at No. 1, SEC teams have held the No. 1 overall spot all season. LSU (currently No. 1), Texas, Texas A&M (preseason) Tennessee, Arkansas and Georgia have all spent at least one week in the No. 1 spot.
Of those teams, only Texas A&M would qualify as a shocking SEC champion and four are in the top 5 seeds of the SEC Tournament. The only team in the top 5 that hasn’t been ranked No. 1 is Vanderbilt, but if the Commodores win the tournament, they could be No. 1. They’re one of the hottest SEC teams, going 7-3 in May, have won their last three SEC series and have rank third in RPI.
That’s five teams that, if they win the SEC Tournament, could easily be the No. 1 team of 64 in the NCAA Tournament. And it’s arguably five teams, or six if you want to include Tennessee, that have the best chances to win the tournament.
If one of those six win the tournament, they should be the No. 1 overall NCAA Tournament seed. But what about the other 10 SEC teams?
Starting with the three SEC teams that need a SEC Tournament championship to make the tournament, Missouri would only be a 4-seed in a NCAA Regional and the same for South Carolina (or more likely a 3-seed). Texas A&M probably just needs two wins to be in the NCAA Tournament and could maybe be a 2-seed (that sweep to Missouri really, really hurts the Aggies).
Of the remaining seven, Auburn is the only one that could end up as the No. 1 overall seed (No. 2 in RPI). If the Tigers win four games in Hoover, Ala., they would have a good argument to be the top overall seed.
That leaves Ole Miss, Alabama, Florida, Mississippi State, Oklahoma and Kentucky.
Ole Miss, Alabama and I’ll even include Florida, would be bumped up to a NCAA Regional host with a tournament win. Might be a little tougher for Oklahoma to make that bump and Mississippi State and Kentucky are 3-seeds right now, but could 2-seeds.
However, do we really think any of those teams will get past some combination of Texas, Arkansas, LSU, Vanderbilt? Personally, I do not.
I think the SEC Tournament champion will be one of the top five seeds in the tournament. If that happens, they should be the No. 1 overall seed.
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-8b6c726067ba8eb0b5197041f28d1b64.jpeg "Taylor Hodges")
Taylor Hodges is a staff writer for Vanderbilt Commodores On SI covering all-things Vanderbilt. Taylor brings more than a decade’s worth of award-winning sports writing, photography and video experience covering every level of sports — from Little League baseball to professional sports and other sports like hunting and fishing. Taylor is fueled by his lifelong passion for sports that began the same day Kirk Gibson hit his legendary World Series walk-off home run, Arkansas beat Texas in Austin and No. 4 Notre Dame beat No. 1 Miami in the Catholics vs. Convicts game.