HOOVER, Ala. — The SEC men’s basketball standings will look quite different this season, no matter who’s on top.
That’s because, for the first time since the 1990-91 season, the standings will not be broken into divisions.
“It’ll probably look strange on paper,” Georgia guard Dustin Ware said Thursday at the annual SEC basketball media day.
SEC athletic directors, acting on a recommendation by the coaches, voted in June to scrap the Eastern and Western divisions in men’s basketball, lump the teams into one set of standings and seed the conference tournament 1 through 12 (with first-round byes for the top four) rather than the previous format of seeding 1 through 6 in each division.
The main impetus for the change was the league’s belief that the two-division model reduced the number of SEC teams receiving NCAA tournament bids. That happened, according to the league’s theory, because even the best team in the weaker division would suffer in the power ratings, in strength of schedule and in the eyes of the selection committee.
Last season, SEC West champion Alabama (12-4 in league play) did not get an NCAA tournament bid, while SEC East fifth-place finisher Tennessee (8-8) did.
“Alabama would have finished four games ahead of Tennessee in the standings if we had listed them 1 through 12,” Georgia coach Mark Fox said Thursday. “Had we listed 1 through 12, I don’t think Alabama would have been left out. The selection committee will say that has no bearing, but still, if you’re four games ahead of somebody, you would think that might have made a little bit of difference.”
Said Kentucky coach John Calipari: “My prediction would be that, with one division, we start getting more teams in the tournament. Six, seven.”
Like many things in college athletics these days, the change is a work in progress.
Because of the late date at which the SEC decided to scrap divisions, the 16-game league schedules were not changed for this season. Georgia, for example, will play two games against each traditional “Eastern” opponent and one against each “Western” opponent, just as in the past.
A more balanced schedule and two additional conference games are expected to be adopted for the 2012-13 season, although the league’s recent addition of Texas A&M and possible addition of Missouri leave future schedules in flux.
“We’re never going to have completely balanced scheduling because we’re not going to 22 or 24 league games,” Fox said, “but I do think we still have to tweak the schedule.”
The demise of the divisions does not have unanimous support among the coaches.
“It was 11 to 1,” said Mississippi State coach Rick Stansbury, the lone dissenter in the June vote. “I liked the way it was. Is football going to keep divisions? [Yes.] Baseball got divisions? [Yes.]
“My main reason [for opposing the change] was that it takes away from the fans. In the month of February, you try to keep interest in basketball. In the Western [Division], you had at least two or three teams fighting for a championship, and I think it created excitement.
“Second, it was an opportunity for another group of student-athletes to win a championship. Hey, you win a Western [Division] championship, that ring means something in this league. But again, 11-to-1 vote.”
Although Vanderbilt coach Kevin Stallings voted in favor of the change, he noted the SEC since has added a 13th team.
“If we had stayed at 12, I was very much in favor of getting rid of the divisions,” Stallings said. “Now that we have started adding teams, I’m not sure the dust has settled on that yet.”
The SEC hasn’t used divisions in women’s basketball since 1985. Before that, the league briefly had two five-team divisions in women’s basketball.
Andy Landers, Georgia women’s coach since 1979, said the division-free format has worked well over the years.
“From time to time, the AD’s have scratched their heads and said, ‘Why are we doing it differently [from the men]?’” Landers said. “And we’ve had to go in and re-sell them, ‘Hey, it’s not broke, why would we change it?’”
About the Author
