Joe Lunardi credits ACC for 'common sense' approach to SEC's projected March Madness seeding dominance

There can be no debate over who college basketball’s best conference has been this season. From start to the near finish late, the SEC has dominated. Many people believe there might be a power shift in the sport occurring as the ACC has long been thought of as the standard.

And for the most part, there has not been much pushback according to ESPN’s Joe Lunardi — at least when discussing this season. Lunardi says folks inside ACC country have used “common sense” when approaching the subject. After all, the SEC/ACC Challenge from earlier December was not too long ago.

“I haven’t heard, literally, one snide remark all season,” Lunardi said Monday via The Paul Finebaum Show. “I think the ACC actually deserves a little credit here. They were leading the charge a year ago at pointing fingers at the Big 12 and their scheduling and running up the score… We haven’t heard a peep and some of that is common sense.

“When you lose 14 out of 16 games against that other league, you’re best not calling a lot of attention to it. I think they also see with their eyes how good these teams are. I’m looking at Texas with Tre Johnson being a bubble team. If Texas is the 10th-best team in your league, that’s a really good league.”

The latest projections from Lunardi currently have 13 SEC teams in the field. Georgia is just on the outside looking in as a member of the ‘Next Four Out’ group. A string of wins down the stretch of the regular season and in the SEC Tournament could have Mike White‘s squad dancing. For now, the lone programs not in consideration for at-large bids are LSU and South Carolina.

Having as many teams earn a one-seed (Auburn, Alabama, Florida, and Tennessee all in consideration) as they would miss the NCAA Tournament would be quite the accomplishment.

Not too long ago, the SEC was struggling to receive a good handful of bids into the field. Lunardi certainly knows there has been a mind shift within the conference and it’s all come to fruition this season. He is not sure these type of numbers can even be produced ever again.

“For a long time, a lot of the teams, a lot of the schools in the SEC didn’t care about basketball,” Lunardi said. “Back in the old days of the SEC West when we were divisional, those schedule strength numbers of some of those schools, they weren’t even trying to get an at-large bid. They were killing time for spring practice, I guess. That is not the case… What we’re seeing in the SEC right now is a one-off because I have a hard time imagining, even the SEC itself, repeating this.”