COLUMBIA, MO. • Three weeks from Sunday the men’s basketball NCAA Tournament bracket will be revealed, a day the Southeastern Conference hopes will mark tangible progress for a sport the league keeps trying to improve with only subtle results.
If the tournament field is the ultimate measure of a league’s fitness, the SEC has fallen behind on Selection Sunday. The league has landed only three teams in the NCAA bracket three of the last four years. With 14 selections overall the last four years, the SEC’s total ranks seventh among Division I conferences, behind the Big Ten (27), Big 12 (26), Pac-12 (25), ACC (23), Big East (23) and Atlantic 10 (15).