5 stats that prove the SEC’s dominance during the 2024-25 regular season

The SEC’s 2024-25 regular season has been historic.

The SEC got off to a dominant start during nonconference play and the elite teams in the league have continued to prove their dominance in extraordinary fashion over the past couple of months.

Here are 5 stats that highlight just how special the SEC has been during the 2024-25 campaign so far:

SEC’s record against other power conferences

Much of the SEC’s reputation this season was built during nonconference play. The league enjoyed a historic run against the other power conferences this regular season, highlighted by their 30-4 record against the ACC. No, that’s not a typo. But yes, it is historic. Since at least 2002-03, it’s by far the SEC’s best record against the ACC over a single season. The next-closest over that span was last season when the SEC was 6 games above .500 vs. the ACC.

There’s likely not another stat that shows power balance shift in college basketball than that. The ACC used to dominate the SEC. From 2002-03 through 2018-19, the SEC had a winning percentage of just .441 vs. the ACC. But since then? The SEC’s winning percentage has ballooned to .676. 

But it’s not just the ACC that struggled vs. the SEC this season. The SEC went 59-19 against the other power conferences this season, good for a winning percentage of .756. It’s just the 7th time in the last 23 seasons that the SEC has been above .500 against the other power leagues during the regular season — let alone something this dominant. 

It’s also historic. The ACC, for as good as it has been over the last 20+ years, never had a winning percentage against power-conference opponents higher than .658 in a single season (2004-05). The Big East’s best mark since 2002-03 is about the same — it went 26-13 (.667) in power-conference games back in 2012-13. The Big 12 is probably the closest, as it went 28-12 (.700) against power-conference teams in 2009-10. Of course, that’s on a much smaller sample size of opponents than what the SEC faced this season. 

Only 1 team had unequivocal success vs. the SEC in nonconference play

There are only 7 teams to have a perfect winning percentage against SEC competition this season, but 6 of them did it in just 1 game. Only Oregon faced multiple SEC teams in 2024-25 (Alabama and Texas A&M) without suffering at least 1 loss. 

That’s remarkable, especially when considering that a total of 52 teams played multiple nonconference games against the SEC this season — but only 1 managed to go undefeated.

Using the same parameters for the other major leagues, a whopping 11 teams accomplished that feat against ACC opposition this year. There were also 5 who did it vs. the Big Ten and 4 against the Big 12. 

The SEC is the best conference in the KenPom era

According to KenPom, the SEC has a conference rating of +22 so far this season. Here’s what that means in layman’s terms: A team expected to go .500 in SEC play would have an adjusted net rating of +22 on KenPom.

For context, the next-closest conference to the SEC this season in KenPom’s rankings (the Big Ten) has a rating just under 19. That’s a fairly significant gap. The Big Ten is also extremely good — in many years, the best league in this metric will be between +16 and +17. 

But more notably, the SEC being north of 22 means the league is on track to being the most dominant conference of the KenPom era (since 1997). During those years, only 3 conferences have a rating of at least +19: 1997 ACC, 2004 ACC and 2017 Big 12. But no league has crossed the +22 threshold over a full season.

But it’s not just the average SEC team that’s better than usual. The top of this league is arguably as good as any conference in recent memory. Alabama is currently the 4th-best SEC team this season with an adjusted net rating of +29.81, per KenPom. That’s a historically-good rating. Over the last 9 seasons before 2025, there have only been 15 teams total to achieve that rating prior to the start of the NCAA Tournament. That’s 15 out of roughly 3,200 individual team seasons. 

The SEC has 15 teams in the KenPom top-70

Sticking with KenPom, here’s another metric that points to the SEC’s dominance this season. A staggering 15 teams in the SEC are included in KenPom’s top 70, which is highly unusual. 

To illustrate that point, here’s how many teams from the other power conferences are outside of KenPom’s top-70 as of publication:

• ACC: 12
• Big Ten: 3
• Big 12: 5
• Big East: 5

The lowest-rated team from the SEC per KenPom is LSU, who clocks in at No. 88 after its poor exit from the SEC Tournament this week.

Besides the Tigers, everyone else is in the top-70, including a South Carolina team who went just 2-16 during conference play this season and nearly upset Arkansas in the SEC Tournament on Wednesday. The Gamecocks, even down at No. 70, are still higher-rated than a team like Wake Forest who received a double-bye in the ACC Tournament. 

The SEC will shatter the all-time record for bids for a single conference

Given all the stats outlined above, it shouldn’t be a surprise that the SEC is projected to be rewarded handsomely this year on Selection Sunday. The SEC could get as many as 14 teams into the NCAA Tournament this year. As of Friday, that’s what ESPN bracketologist Joe Lunardi is projecting. No other conference is set to get more than 8 teams in the dance, per Lunardi. 

If that sounds like a lot, it’s because it is — the all-time record is 11, set by the Big East back in 2011. 

SEC commissioner Greg Sankey even talked up the possibility of getting a record-shattering 14 teams into the field. Even with the possibility of NCAA Tournament expansion in the coming years, this is a record that has the potential to stand for a long, long time. 

Fair or not, the expectation will be for multiple SEC teams to make deep runs to the Final Four. Time will tell if the SEC ultimately lives up to the hype during March Madness, but this regular season has been one to remember.

Spenser Davis

Spenser is a news editor for Saturday Down South and covers college football across all Saturday Football brands.