No matter spin, SEC basketball mediocre
It is fact, and really not open for much of a debate, the SEC is the dominant football league in all of the land.
Having won eight of the past 10 national championships, and a runner-up in another, leaves little room for argument.
Football is also the cash cow for the SEC, where every member will receive more money from this season than ever before, thanks in large part to the SEC Network.
Over the same decade, SEC basketball has slid mightily. Maybe not always Florida, and definitely not Kentucky, but overall SEC basketball has become like a modern-day political campaign that is spin city.
Super Tuesday is two days away, meaning over the next eight months, television is going to be inundated with advertising that attacks opponents instead of the problems in our country, such as the rising debt.
It is already wearisome to hear a candidate claim the problem is that the opponent isn’t against dark dollars instead of the candidate taking a contributor-paid trip to Europe that cost more than the average Arkansan earns.
Sorry, yours truly is apolitical. Doesn’t belong to a party. Doesn’t endorse candidates. Doesn’t reveal his personal vote, but is that really what working for your state or country has come to? Mudslinging and spinning?
Now the SEC doesn’t throw stones at other conferences this time of year when the debates are going on about how many teams it deserves to have in the NCAA Tournament, but it does put on the big spin.
The experts, and most of the guys who project the 68team field are truly experts because getting just 32 of the 36 at-large bids right is considered an off year, had been saying for weeks the SEC deserves four or five. Sometimes the number was six.
It makes one wonder if anyone is actually watching basketball on the SEC Network.
Yes, it is hard to swallow some of the stuff that comes out of the league’s own TV station when it comes to hoops.
Football on the SEC Network is slick. Top quality. Game announcers are mostly entertaining, and the studio analysts are good.
For basketball, half of that is true. The game announcers are pretty good.
The studio shows before, after and at halftime are like high school productions.
Most of those analysts played basketball in the SEC, but it doesn’t appear any got close to a broadcasting class.
Anyway, with one week of the regular season left and the SEC Tournament in Nashville, Tenn., it is starting to seem as if the SEC would be lucky to get more than three teams into March Madness.
It has been a long time since the magic number was 20 to make the Big Dance. Generally, it takes more victories than that, and only three teams have 20 or more wins: Kentucky (of course), South Carolina and Texas A&M.
Those three programs have been considered the best in the SEC, and the Wildcats and Aggies are tied for first place, with the Gamecocks a game behind.
Vanderbilt, with an RPI of 57, Florida at 44 and Alabama with a 53 are the other three teams being mentioned. The computers were in love with the Gators, but a breakup seems imminent.
Barring someone going on a run in the SEC Tournament and getting the automatic bid, it appears it is realistic to expect the SEC to get five teams in March Madness, the fewest of the Big 5 conferences, because the SEC isn’t as good.
As for Super Tuesday, go vote for someone, not just against someone.