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SEC ties NCAA Tournament record for most teams in Elite Eight
By Sydney Hunte
Published:
The SEC’s dominance in the regular season has — unsurprisingly — extended to the NCAA Tournament.
With the Elite Eight teams locked in as they each sit a win away from the Final Four, half of those teams are from the SEC, matching the mark set by the Big East in 2009 and the ACC in 2016.
No. 1-seeded Florida and second-seeded Alabama each won their respective matchups on Thursday. The Gators led by just 2 at halftime before pulling away in the second half to oust Maryland and will face No. 3 seed Texas Tech, who topped Arkansas to spoil a possible SEC vs. SEC regional final in San Francisco. Meanwhile, the Crimson Tide, who drained a tournament-record 25 3-pointers in a win over BYU, will square off against Duke, the tournament’s top overall seed.
We did get an SEC vs. SEC Sweet 16 game: Tennessee vs. Kentucky. The Volunteers built a big first-half lead to top the Wildcats on Friday to set up a meeting with top-seeded Houston, who beat Purdue in dramatic fashion.
And, in Atlanta, No. 1 seed Auburn got the better of Michigan on Friday. The Tigers will face second-seeded Michigan State on Sunday.
A Final Four made up of teams from the same conference has never materialized. Could we see that in 2025?
Sydney is an Atlanta-based journalist who has covered everything from SEC and ACC football to MLS, the U.S. men's national soccer team and professional tennis. His work has appeared on such platforms as SB Nation, Cox Media Group and FanSided.
