SEC Basketball: Hypothetical division setup for 2020-21 season
By Ryan Kay
Divisions for SEC Basketball ended however after the completion of the 2010-11 season. Hypothetically, if there were divisions in the SEC this season, who would win them?
Even though SEC football is heading into week three of play, it is never too early to start talking about SEC basketball. For all of the SEC basketball teams, this season will be unique in many aspects.
College basketball, in general, is going to look different this season as teams are trying to put together a non-conference schedule for the 2020-2021 season. With all of the upcoming changes to college basketball, what if the SEC conference had brought back divisions for this upcoming college basketball season?
Divisions are very common in college football but in college basketball, it is almost non-existent with the exception of the Mid-American Conference that has two divisions. Let’s take a look at what it would have looked like and discuss some bold predictions.
The last time that the SEC had divisions for its basketball conference was during the 2010-11 season. The SEC athletic directors for various reasons, amongst them, being, was a strong push by the coaches to eliminate divisions entering the 2011-12 season.
The SEC conference has a very successful format for its football conference with two divisions and a conference championship game at the end of the regular season.
However, in college basketball, all division 1 basketball conferences now have a conference tournament after the conclusion of each conference’s regular-season play, and divisions are not necessarily needed like they are in college football as divisions for conferences in college football determines who plays in the conference championship game.
For example, some of the SEC West basketball division winners didn’t even qualify for the NCAA Tournament thus winning a division title in basketball does not compare necessarily compare to winning the SEC East division in football for example.
The other problem with divisions in basketball for the SEC is that the divisions were primarily set up for football only. The SEC kept the divisions the same for basketball and the last two years of basketball conference play with divisions in the SEC were very unbalanced.
Regardless of either argument for or against reinstating divisions for the SEC basketball conference, it is interesting to imagine what the SEC basketball conference play would look like with divisions for the 2020-21 season.
The SEC conference announced that they will begin conference play on Dec. 29 and 30 with an 18-game schedule with two open dates built into the schedule. Let’s take a look at who would win the SEC West and East divisions if there would have been divisions for this upcoming season of conference play.