The Rise of the SEC: How a league known for the gridiron became became kings of college basketball

Porter Moser spent three seasons in the Big 12 before shepherding Oklahoma to the Southeastern Conference, making the longtime coach uniquely suited to compare the erstwhile best conference in America to the current king of college hoops.

"The things is, there is no bottom," Moser explained. "That’s what we felt in the Big 12 the last couple years. But the athleticism with the ages is the difference. The athleticism, in my opinion, I’ve never seen in any league in any era. The length, age, shooters, skill levels of the teams in the SEC this year - it’s unbelievable. "

Unbelievable is a good way to describe Selection Sunday.

The expanded SEC landed a record 14 teams in the 68-team bracket, populating it with the overall No. 1 seed (Auburn), another No. 1 seed (Florida) and four more among the top four seeds in their respective regions. The total was a full three more than the previous record, held by the Big East, back when it was considered the dominant league in the country.

Buzz Williams was a part of that league, back when he was with Marquette. Then he moved to the ACC at Virginia Tech, which never seemed a whole lot easier. But these days? Every night, Williams knows his boys at Texas A&M are in for a fight.

"I do think what's transpiring is historic. And I don't think that when you're living in it, you're clapping as a fan or as a media member going, 'This is really cool,'" Williams said. “You're trying to figure out how to not suffocate yourself from the burden that you feel that (every) possession can move the needle."

So how exactly did the SEC reach this point? How did a league known for fall Saturdays in the South - the Iron Bowl, the Egg Bowl, the "World's Largest Outdoor Cocktail Party" - become the epicenter of winters on the hardwood?

A good place to start is 2016, when Greg Sankey took over as the commissioner. The SEC only landed three schools in the NCAA Tournament that year, and Sankey was unwilling to accept any excuses from coaches, athletic directors and administrators.

One of his first calls was to Mike Tranghese, the old Big East commissioner, who came aboard as a consultant. The next was to Dan Leibovitz, a former coach with NBA ties, who became associate commissioner in charge of basketball. When Leibovitz took over the Big East, Sankey brought in Garth Glissman, who had been vice president of basketball operations for the NBA.

In other words, Sankey brought in basketball minds to lead a basketball resurrection.

Then, that group convinced schools that winning in football and basketball wasn’t an either-or proposition. They could succeed in both of college athletics’ most lucrative games, provided they did a few seemingly simple things:

- They invested in them. More than half of the teams in the current 16-team configuration have built new arenas or undertaken transformative renovations since Sankey was hired, and others have invested in player dormitories and practice facilities.

- They hired the right coaches and paid them well. The common denominator has been track records as winning head coaches, either in other power conferences - such as Rick Barnes at Tennessee and Chris Beard at Ole Miss - or from the mid-major level, such as Missouri’s Dennis Gates, Todd Golden at Florida, Nate Oats at Alabama and Mississippi State’s Chris Jans.

- They recruited the right players, transfers and freshmen alike. Three of the league’s biggest stars got their start elsewhere: Auburn’s Johni Broome at Morehead State, Florida’s Walter Clayton Jr. at Iona and Alabama’s Mark Sears at Ohio. Looking ahead to next season, 14 of the league’s 16 teams have at least one top-100 freshman recruit.

The coaches have managed to navigate a brave new world of the transfer portal and name, image and likeness compensation in college sports, keeping their best players with proper packages while bringing in others with robust support from alumni and administrators.

"When Vandebilt wins, it strengthens our connection to the university and to each other, as alumni and supports," said Mark H. Carter, a businessman who recently pledged a $1.5 million matching gift to the school to support NIL initiatives.

"If we, in turn, invest in recruiting and holding onto the best of the best, we can do great things for the university," Carter said. "When the whole world is watching Vanderbilt, the return on investment is exponential."

On Sunday, Vanderbilt received its first NCAA Tournament bid in eight years. The Commodores deserved it, too, beating the likes of Seton Hall (Big East), Virginia Tech and Cal (ACC) and TCU (Big 12).

It is hard to argue the SEC did not deserve its 14 tournament bids when you consider its teams combined to go 30-4 against the ACC, 14-2 against the Big 12, 10-9 against the Big Ten and 5-4 against the Big East.

"I thought it was a record non-conference success rate for all the teams in our league," Ole Miss coach Chris Beard said. "Then when the league starts, it’s just been a bloodbath. It’s short-term memory. Two-game winning streak and free breakfast burritos in the morning; lose a couple games and fans think the world’s falling apart."

The only two SEC teams that missed the NCAA Tournament were LSU and South Carolina. The Tigers beat NCAA teams Arkansas and Oklahoma, while the Gamecocks beat the Razorbacks and fellow NCAA qualifier Texas.

"There’s no alpha in this league," said Dylan Caldwell, who helped Auburn spend eight weeks at No. 1 this season. "We were like, maybe five or six possessions away from being the 5-seed, you know?"

Indeed, there is certainly an alpha in college basketball.

"Every single game that you play in this conference is an elite-level game," explained Kentucky guard Kobe Brea. “You’re playing against a really good team. Their whole roster is really good. Obviously, they’re coached by good coaches.

"The SEC has just been different this year," Brea said. "I think it’s been an historic year, actually, for any conference."