Is the SEC too deep for its own good?

The center of the college basketball universe has officially shifted south. 

SEC men's basketball is the biggest and baddest around, rising to the top of college basketball through strength in numbers.

In the Week 13 AP poll, 10 SEC schools were ranked with an additional two receiving votes, meaning 75 percent of the conference was a part of the poll.

But is the SEC too deep for its own good? Per ESPN, the conference is on track to receive 13 bids to the NCAA Tournament — a gargantuan number that will prove lucrative with each team earning at least $2 million for the league through the NCAA's unit system.

Should the SEC receive 13 bids, it will be the record for most bids from a single conference. The Big East holds the record with 11 in 2011, marking the only time a conference received double-digit bids. The champion that season? The Big East's UConn Huskies.

The notion that a deep league means teams will beat up on each other and hurt themselves in the long run is a mixed bag. The aforementioned 2011 UConn team barely made it into the field, but went all the way. That's the good news. The bad: only one of the other 10 Big East teams made it past the first weekend that season (Marquette, Sweet 16).

The SEC placed eight teams in both the 2023 and 2024 tournaments. Three teams qualified for the Sweet 16 in 2023 with none advancing further. In 2024, only two teams made it to the Sweet 16. Alabama advanced to the Final Four and Tennessee fell in the Elite 8.

College basketball is a grind for student-athletes. It's even more difficult when every game is against premier competition. No. 4 Alabama (17-3, 6-1) will play its final seven regular season games against currently ranked opponents. Add in the SEC and NCAA Tournaments and it will play at least nine games against ranked opponents or win-or-go-home scenarios. That's taxing.

“Now, we get ready to start the toughest conference schedule in the history of college basketball," said Auburn head coach Bruce Pearl said in December, via Dan Morrison of On3. "Like, there’s maybe never been a league like this, and it’s going to be, the strong are literally going to be the only ones who are going to survive. Hungry, healthy, humble is the way to get through it. Matchups are going to matter. We’re going to lose games. But we can’t let a loss affect us the next time out. We’ve got to be beat instead of beating ourselves. But we’re healthy and we’re ready.”

Pearl's comments highlight the issues a deep league presents. A team must stay healthy to make a deep run. Auburn dealt with an ankle injury to star forward Johni Broome that forced him to miss two games. Missouri sharpshooter Caleb Grill missed more than a month to a neck injury. Can the SEC's best stay healthy as March looms?

A team also has to bounce back from adversity, which is inevitable in a loaded conference. Alabama point guard Mark Sears was benched in the Tide's Jan. 25 win for what head coach Nate Oats alluded to as a lack of effort. No. 5 Florida was 13-0 before losing two of four games to start 2025. The Gators have rebounded to win three in a row. Toughness will win out.

The conference has the makings of one of the best ever, but the fight to get to the top may prove to be too taxing on all of them. Like Pearl said: only the strong will survive.