Greg Sankey discusses SEC depth ahead of NCAA Tournament

The SEC is pretty deep for a basketball conference this season and commissioner Greg Sankey talked about it during its conference tournament.

Right now, seven teams are in the tournament, and one on the bubble, based on the latest bracketology projection from ESPN’s Joe Lunardi. Getting eight of 14 teams is quite impressive.

Sankey said it was a testament to the evolving conference outside of a blue blood program like Kentucky.

“I think over time, we’ve had South Carolina in the Final Four, Auburn in the Final Four, obviously Kentucky got there last year,” Sankey said on the broadcast of the Ole Miss–Tennessee game. “Arkansas was in the Elite Eight again for the second straight year, so we have (a lot of) talent and success. Kentucky, you’re watching our basketball show every night with the hoops history in the Southeastern Conference, you’re reminded of the legacy there. But there’s a lot of great competition across the board.”

Sankey also talked about the depth of the SEC across all sports and said he wanted the conference to be the premier destination, regardless of the season.

“My expectation is we always have a team at the end of the year in the Final Four the top four or five in every sport,” Sankey said. “We should be at that level with the support, the media presence we have … that actually makes everyone better. If you look at the runs we’ve had in baseball … or what’s been achieved at Alabama or Kirby’s building doing in football at (Georgia), what’s happened with softball in our league, that makes everybody better when it rises to the very top nationally.

“And that’s part of my excitement about our future … The level of competition will be like must see TV every time is SEC vs. SEC contest in every sport.”

Among the eight projected teams in the NCAA Tournament, Alabama is a projected No. 1 seed in the South Region. 

Alabama, Arkansas, Auburn, Kentucky, Mississippi State, Missouri and Tennessee are the seven teams in at the moment while Vandebilt sat on the bubble in the “Next Four Out” category.

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The SEC Tournament continues through Sunday with the championship game scheduled for 1:00 p.m. ET on ESPN.