2026 SEC Tournament

[Thunder Good-Oil]

mred's SEC MBB Tournament Seeding Tiebreaker

Southeastern Conference Men's Basketball Tournament Seeding and Tiebreakers

bball.notnothing.net

No clue if they have the tiebreakers correct but still a cool website.

Not that it matters today - TXAM at Arkansas clears it up tomorrow night, but they have Arkansas as the #2 based on combined records of the 3x tied at #2 versus the 4x teams tied at 8-6 for 6th place.

BUT versus the #5 seed Texas A&M, TN and Bama are 1-0 while Arkansas is 0-0 (until Wednesday night). So those A&M wins eliminate Arkansas from the 3-way tie and then TN gets the tie breaker versus Bama based on head-to-head.

 

[Thunder Good-Oil]

Florida has wrapped up one of the 4 double byes.

5 of the 8 opening round spots are filled by Miss State, Oklahoma, Mississippi, USC, and LSU.

Barn is 1 loss (or a Georgia win) away from wrapping up the 6th opening round spot.

Georgia and Texas are close to taking the last 2 opening round seeds.

Tennessee has fallen to the 4th seed.

There are 4x teams tied for the 5th seed - one game behind TN.

Texas is 2 games behind TN.

TN’s magic number to avoid the opening round is one. Either a TN win or a Texas loss on Saturday guarantees that TN will finish no worse than 8th.

 

[Thunder Good-Oil]

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4 teams (#1- #4) get the double bye.
4 teams (#5 - #8) get a single bye.
8 teams (#9 - #16) play in the opening round.
Tie breaker rules are in post #1.
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As of 2/25/2026:

1. Florida (13-2)(Ls: Missouri, Barn)
•••••••••••••••• Double Bye Cut Off ••••••••••••••••••••••
2. Arkansas (11-4)(Ls: Barn, UGa, KY, Bama)
2. Alabama (11-4)(Ls: VU, TX, TN, FL)

4. Tennessee (10-5)(Ls: Ark, FL, KY, KY, MZ)
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5. Texas A&M (9-6)(Ls: TN, Bama, FL, MZ, VU, Ark)
5. Kentucky (9-6)(Ls: Bama, Mizz, VU, FL, GA, Barn)
5. Vanderbilt (9-6)(Ls: TX, FL, Ark, OK, MZ, TN)
5. Missouri (9-6)(Ls: OM, LSU, GA, Bama, TX, Ark)
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
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9. Texas (8-7)(Ls: MSU, TN, A&M, KY, Barn, GA, FL)

10. Georgia (7-8)(Ls: FL, OM, TX, TN, A&M, FL, OK, VU)

11. Barn (6-9)(Ls: GA, A&M, MZ, TN, Bama, VU, Ark, MSU)

•••••••••••••••• Opening Round Cut Off ••••••••••••••••••••••

12. Mississippi State (5-10)(Wins: TX, OK, LSU, OM, Barn)

13. Oklahoma (4-11)(Wins: OM, VU, GA, Barn)

14. Ole Miss (3-12)(Wins: MZ, GA, MSU)
14. South Carolina (3-12)(Wins: LSU, OK, MSU)
14. LSU (3-12)(Wins: OM, VU, OM)

===========================

 

[BruisedOrange]

Okay. Time to compose ourselves, put those regular season troubles behind us, and start building that bridge to Indianapolis!

 

[Thunder Good-Oil]

Okay. Time to compose ourselves, put those regular season troubles behind us, and start building that bridge to Indianapolis!

View attachment 816608

We’re going to Bridgestone first.

I enjoy the SECT. Top teams often trying to improve their NCAAT seed. Bottom half teams trying to get a bid. But it was more meaningful to play in when there were just 10 SEC teams and the NCAAT only took 2 or 3 or maybe 4 SEC teams.

It was really fun when they brought it back in 1979. Just the second year after the end of the Ernie and Bernie Show.

Ole Miss was DeVoe’s Kryptonite. Elston Turner made us pay for not getting him into an orange and white uniform. A-E fo’evah! They were a force in the 1970s. Now Fulton (and Central, Bearden, West, and Catholic) picks off their best athletes.

 

[MoCo_Vol]

Negative about being the 4, our 2nd game is likely against Florida...

We'd face winner of 5 vs 12/13

With 3 games left we are in a bit of a must win spot. 10-5 with 4 teams below us at 9-6...Missouri with the H2H, Kentucky with the H2H and Vandy with an opportunity to split with us still.

Games coming up that will impact our seeding big time BOLD winning helps us the most I think
SAT:
Vandy at Kentucky
Arkansas at Florida
Missouri at Miss State
Texas at A&M

MIDWEEK:
Bama at Georgia
Vandy at Ole Piss
Missouri at OU
Kentucky at A&M
Texas at Arkansas

FINAL SAT:
Auburn at Bama
Florida at Kentucky
Arkansas at Missouri

 

[Thunder Good-Oil]

Negative about being the 4, our 2nd game is likely against Florida...

We'd face winner of 5 vs 12/13

With 3 games left we are in a bit of a must win spot. 10-5 with 4 teams below us at 9-6...Missouri with the H2H, Kentucky with the H2H and Vandy with an opportunity to split with us still.

Games coming up that will impact our seeding big time BOLD winning helps us the most I think
SAT:
Vandy at Kentucky
Arkansas at Florida
Missouri at Miss State
Texas at A&M

MIDWEEK:
Bama at Georgia
Vandy at Ole Piss
Missouri at OU
Kentucky at A&M
Texas at Arkansas

FINAL SAT:
Auburn at Bama
Florida at Kentucky
Arkansas at Missouri

Climbing to the 2/3 seed doesn’t get a lot easier as the matchup is probably versus Arkansas. But getting them in Nashville makes a huge difference instead of playing in Fayetteville.

BTW, 7 of the 8 midweek games next week are on Tuesday. The only Wednesday game is Texas at Arkansas.

I want the double bye mainly to get a bit more rest a week or less before the NCAAT opener. But I want to play on Sunday no matter what. We went about 40 years with only one SECT championship game (a Wade Houston anomaly). Hopefully the committee would bracket us Friday/Sunday instead of Thursday/Saturday if we reach the SECT finals.

 

[Orangeslide]

Climbing to the 2/3 seed doesn’t get a lot easier as the matchup is probably versus Arkansas. But getting them in Nashville makes a huge difference instead of playing in Fayetteville.

BTW, 7 of the 8 midweek games next week are on Tuesday. The only Wednesday game is Texas at Arkansas.

I want the double bye mainly to get a bit more rest a week or less before the NCAAT opener. But I want to play on Sunday no matter what. We went about 40 years with only one SECT championship game (a Wade Houston anomaly). Hopefully the committee would bracket us Friday/Sunday instead of Thursday/Saturday if we reach the SECT finals.

The committee could care less if we play in the SECT CHAMPIONSHIP

 

[BernardKingGOAT]

Climbing to the 2/3 seed doesn’t get a lot easier as the matchup is probably versus Arkansas. But getting them in Nashville makes a huge difference instead of playing in Fayetteville.

BTW, 7 of the 8 midweek games next week are on Tuesday. The only Wednesday game is Texas at Arkansas.

I want the double bye mainly to get a bit more rest a week or less before the NCAAT opener. But I want to play on Sunday no matter what. We went about 40 years with only one SECT championship game (a Wade Houston anomaly). Hopefully the committee would bracket us Friday/Sunday instead of Thursday/Saturday if we reach the SECT finals.

We won it in 1979

 

[Thunder Good-Oil]

We won it in 1979

I’m fully aware. In 1979 we had a double bye as the #2 seed along with #1 LSU. The other 8 teams played in the opening round and the 4 winning teams played in the quarter finals.,Kentucky cleared the way for DeVoe (in his first year) by taking out LSU in the semis.

My point is that I appreciate getting to play in the championship game. It was actually only once in “29 years”. I said “about 40”. 1980-2008 the only championship game appearance was Wade’s 1991 team. Or twice in 39 years with Bruce’s 2009 championship game loss.

 

[Thunder Good-Oil]

The committee could care less if we play in the SECT CHAMPIONSHIP

They consider whether a team played in a championship game on Sunday when setting the schedule with a Thursday or a Friday opening round game. One of the 4 or 5 days between Sunday and game #1 is a travel day so they avoid scheduling the Sunday championship game participants with only 3 days to prepare by turning them around on Thursday.

 

[BernardKingGOAT]

I’m fully aware. In 1979 we had a double bye as the #2 seed along with #1 LSU. The other 8 teams played in the opening round and the 4 winning teams played in the quarter finals.,Kentucky cleared the way for DeVoe (in his first year) by taking out LSU in the semis.

My point is that I appreciate getting to play in the championship game. It was actually only once in “29 years”. I said “about 40”. 1980-2008 the only championship game appearance was Wade’s 1991 team. Or twice in 39 years with Bruce’s 2009 championship game loss.

In 79 it was a bye all the way to the semis as we finished 2nd in the regular season

 

[Thunder Good-Oil]

In 79 it was a bye all the way to the semis as we finished 2nd in the regular season

I just pointed all of that out.

 

[BernardKingGOAT]

I just pointed all of that out.

Yep. Hadn't fully read through your post. Now that I have, I do agree it matters to make it to the championship game. Yeah, they won't schedule teams playing on Sunday until the following Friday. Rarely though does it affect seeding

 

[Thunder Good-Oil]

Yep. Hadn't fully read through your post. Now that I have, I do agree it matters to make it to the championship game. Yeah, they won't schedule teams playing on Sunday until the following Friday. Rarely though does it affect seeding

They seem to have the seeds determined before P4/5/6 championship games but probably have created contingent brackets.

In 2009 we lost in the SECT championship game and they screwed us with a #9 seed facing an opening round game versus another major conference team (Ok State). So going 2-1 in the SECT didn’t help. Although we were 19-11 when the regular season wrapped up.