National Player of the Year frontrunner Johni Broome led Auburn to a win over Alabama with 19 points, 14 rebounds and six assists. Photo courtesy of AL.com.
BROCK DANAHEY | STAFF REPORTER | bldanahey@butler.edu
Overtime, or “OT,” is an opinion column series where the Collegian takes national sports headlines or polarizing topics and gives them a Butler-centric angle.
The Iron Bowl has always been an iconic football rivalry between the University of Alabama and Auburn University. This rivalry has now made its way onto the basketball court.
On Feb. 15, No. 1 Auburn defeated AP No. 2 Alabama 94-85 in the first-ever SEC showdown between the No. 1 and No. 2 teams in the country.
This game highlighted a growing trend in college sports. The SEC has historically been known as the best conference in college football, but now they are also considered the best conference in college basketball.
The SEC has the most teams ranked in the AP College Basketball Top 25 poll out of any other conference. Eight teams in the SEC are ranked in the top 25 and four of those eight are in the top six.
The ACC has been widely referred to as the best conference in college basketball for several years. Currently, the ACC has three teams ranked inside the top 25, and only one of those teams is inside the top 10. This year the SEC has overtaken the title as the best conference in college basketball and the ACC has been one of the worst. The ACC has the least number of teams ranked in the top 25 out of the Power Four conferences.
The rise of the SEC in college basketball is due to several reasons including NIL, conference realignment and simply more talent committing to SEC schools.
Junior accounting major Sean Grove thinks the jump SEC schools took in college basketball is directly related to NIL.
“I believe seven or eight years ago, SEC schools made a conscientious decision to pour all their money into football and men’s basketball because that’s what makes the most money,” Grove said. “Money talks in college sports, especially in men’s college basketball and they were able to flood the system with money they hadn’t seen before and capitalize off of NIL.”
SEC schools are the richest in the country and have the most money to spend on athletics, specifically football. Since football is so popular down south and historically the main sport in the SEC, the game in the trenches is what generates the conference the most money. The revenue SEC schools make from football is spent on the next most popular sport: men’s basketball.
Following this model, it is no surprise that many of the best teams in college basketball this year have great football teams too. Auburn, Florida, Tennessee and Alabama all have historic, well-known football programs and are each currently ranked in the top six in college basketball.
The rise of the SEC and the decline of the ACC in college basketball can possibly be attributed to football. In the final rankings for the college football season, the SEC had seven teams in the top 25. The ACC only had three. The ACC’s steady decline in both college football and basketball has negatively affected their NIL deals contributing to the poor performances on the field and court.
This past year, the Big 10 gained Oregon, USC, Washington and UCLA who all have reputable basketball programs. Oklahoma and Texas were the only new schools to join the SEC, and their basketball programs are not as well known.
Sophomore Matthew Valdick, a finance and business technology and analytics double major, thinks that the conference realignment has positively affected college basketball in the SEC.
“When you get more talent going into the Big 10, and they play each other, they’re going to have more losses which will make the SEC look better,” Valdick said.
With competitive basketball programs joining the Big 10, teams’ records will not look as embellished against SEC schools. Big 10 teams also have to deal with traveling from coast to coast with the addition of teams from out west.
Brian Day, Associate professor of psychology and college basketball fan, thinks the amenities SEC schools offer athletes give them a leg up.
“SEC schools have made investments in dorms, dining halls and practice facilities for basketball players,” Day said. “They have always invested in that for football players for a long time, but ten years ago all the programs made huge investments into their basketball teams. Kentucky was one of the first when they built player-only dorms, and a lot of the other SEC schools followed suit.”
SEC schools are known for having some of the best boosters who donate money to their athletic programs. Day mentioned that some of the same boosters who donate to football are donating to basketball too. Schools that pour so much money into their football programs are starting to bleed over into basketball like Alabama, Tennessee and Missouri who all finished in the top 25 for football and are currently ranked in the top 25 for basketball.
However, Day thinks no matter how hard SEC schools try, football will always be entrenched in the South.
“I went to grad school in the South, and it was different,” Day said. “Football brought out everybody. Football will be king for a while down there.”
One thing for certain is that the SEC is the best conference in college basketball right now, and they are not going away anytime soon.
