SEC sets record for most NCAA Tournament bids with 14

The record has finally fallen! When the NCAA Tournament selection committee announced the 68-team field on Sunday night, they confirmed that the SEC will see 14 of its 16 members compete for the national championship.

This mark topples the previous record of 11, which was set by the Big East in 2011, when it landed all but five of its members schools in the March Madness bracket. The mark stood for 14 years and was long considered untouchable until recent years.

Many factors play into the SEC’s ability to make college basketball history. The expansion of the conference, a new era of athletics, and a record-setting year from the sport’s best conference all set the tone for what felt inevitable over recent months.

A historic SEC season

The SEC has set a new bar for elite college basketball conferences this season, not only landing 14 teams in the NCAA Tournament field, but all 16 inside the Top 100 of both the NET Rankings and KenPom. From January to March, there were truly no easy games on the schedule.

The strength of the conference became a point of discussion after a historic run through the non-conference schedule, which saw even the bottom of the SEC boast strong records and an impressive league-wide win percentage. In total, teams went 184-24.

The success even gave way to comedy, when social media jokes about the .500 record in conference play – a given in any conference, of course – tripped up commentators looking to poke holes in the conversation which placed the SEC in unrivaled esteem.

From the computer numbers to paper resumes, eye test to draft board, the SEC accomplished an unprecedented run through the 2024-25 season in all measures. And now they boast the NCAA Tournament record to prove it.

Far from over, this celebration now gives way to responsibility as the 14 teams look to have strong performances which further cement the conference’s spot in the record books.

Conference expansion

While the SEC’s decision to expand the conference from 14 to 16 teams certainly helped them break the record, it only brought them even with the Big East on total number of members. However, both expansion teams — Oklahoma and Texas — made the field.

While there is certainly merit to the argument that conference expansion played a role, it is also true that college basketball conferences across the country have grown in size. When announcements were made that the Big Ten and Big 12 would absorb most of the old Pac-12 in response to SEC moves, it started the clock for this record.

No matter which conference achieved the goal, it was only a matter of time before the number of resources available allowed a large majority of the super-sized conferences to compete at an NCAA Tournament level.

The SEC got there first, and beyond that set a record which will be difficult to match. Rather than a tie, which would surely bring on the scrutiny, 14 teams creates separation and sets a new bar for conferences of any size to reach.