There’s a disconnect.

Despite the growing popularity of SEC basketball, the NCAA Tournament selection committee provided annual reminders that the conference isn’t worthy of getting the benefit of the doubt. Not yet, at least.

The SEC Tournament, which is set to kick off Wednesday in Nashville, still doesn’t move the needle. While conference tournaments as a whole can be a bit overvalued by the casual fan, I’d argue that the selection committee puts even less stock into what happens in the SEC Tournament when it sets the NCAA Tournament field.

Go ask 2021-22 A&M about that. A perceived bubble team heading into conference tournament week went all the way to the SEC Championship as an 8-seed … only to lose to Tennessee in the title game and get left out of the NCAA Tournament. Greg Sankey publicly shared his displeasure with that.

Even the SEC champ, Tennessee, seemed like a lock for at least a 2-seed in the NCAA Tournament. Instead, the Vols got a 3-seed and got ousted in the Round of 32 by 11-seed Michigan.

The year before, Alabama swept the SEC regular season and the conference tournament but was still not rewarded with one of the 4 No. 1 seeds in the NCAA Tournament.

Meanwhile the Big Ten had a 6-loss Illinois team earn a top seed after winning the conference tournament while Michigan got a 1-seed despite the fact that it lost 3 games in the first 2 weeks of March. Never mind the fact that the Big Ten is still trying to win the NCAA Tournament for the first time since Michigan State did so in 2000. You know, when the vast majority of current college players weren’t alive yet.

Remember 2019? Auburn went into the SEC Tournament as a ranked team having won 6 of 7. The Tigers then rolled through the SEC Tournament, which was capped off with a 20-point beatdown of No. 8 Tennessee. Auburn was rewarded in the NCAA Tournament with … a 5-seed.

Granted, Auburn went on to reach the Final Four and it would’ve played in a national championship if a Virginia double-dribble was called properly, but I digress. You get what I’m saying.

The last 3 years of the SEC Tournament gave us non-Kentucky winners, which spoke to the growth of the conference’s hoops brand. But Selection Sunday was a buzzkill in all 3 scenarios.

The same could be true again. Alabama missing out on a 1-seed despite the fact that it’s been a top-4 team for the last 2 months would be a slap in the face. While I wouldn’t expect that to happen even if the Tide are bounced early in the SEC Tournament, take a look at how rare it is for an SEC team to get a 1-seed in the NCAA Tournament in the last decade:

  • 2012 Kentucky
  • 2014 Florida
  • 2015 Kentucky

That’s it. Yes, it’s been 8 years since the SEC had a 1-seed in the NCAA Tournament. From 2016-22, here’s the breakdown of 1-seeds by conference:

  • ACC — 7 (2016 UNC, 2016 Virginia, 2017 UNC, 2018 Virginia, 2019 Duke, 2019 Virginia, 2019 UNC)
  • Big 12 — 6 (2016 Kansas, 2017 Kansas, 2018 Kansas, 2021 Baylor, 2022 Kansas, 2022 Baylor)
  • WCC — 4 (2017 Gonzaga, 2019 Gonzaga, 2021 Gonzaga, 2022 Gonzaga)
  • Big East — 3 (2017 Villanova, 2018 Xavier, 2018 Villanova)
  • Big Ten — 2 (2021 Michigan, 2021 Illinois)
  • Pac-12 — 2 (2016 Oregon, 2022 Arizona)
  • SEC — 0

That’s stunning, especially considering how it feels like the conference itself has made significant strides in that time. After all, the SEC got at least 6 bids in each of the last 4 NCAA Tournaments. From 2009-17, the SEC didn’t get 6 bids once. The conference has absolutely gotten better as a whole. I suppose that one could point to the increased competitiveness of the conference as a reason why that 1-seed has been so hard to come by.

At same time, this isn’t football. Since 2016, there are 5 instances that we saw a conference get multiple 1-seeds. Even the Big East got a pair of 1-seeds in 2018.

Perhaps the SEC Tournament has yielded Selection Sunday letdowns because of the lack of deep runs from SEC teams from 2016-22. That aforementioned 2019 Auburn squad, who was snubbed with a 5-seed after winning the SEC Tournament, and 2017 Cinderella team South Carolina are the lone teams from the conference to reach the Final Four in the last 6 NCAA Tournaments. Both of them failed to reach the title game.

(I know, Auburn fans. The missed double-dribble. I didn’t forget.)

You can poke holes in conferences like the West Coast Conference for not having depth beyond Gonzaga, or you can criticize the Big Ten for being more than 2 decades removed from its last national title. Both of them, however, at least reached the title game. Since 2015, Gonzaga was on the losing end of the national championship multiple times, as was a Big Ten team. In the post-Florida repeat era (2008-present), Kentucky accounted for the SEC’s lone 2 appearances in the title game, the last of which happened 9 years ago.

One can cry foul about the selection committee having an anti-SEC agenda — consider that another reminder that this really isn’t football — but even a conference tournament for the ages won’t take care of the elephant in the room. The SEC could use some actual March Madness bragging rights in 2023. It could also probably use an Elite Eight in which it doesn’t have SEC foes squaring off, which we saw in 2017 (South Carolina vs. Florida) and 2019 (Kentucky vs. Auburn).

Maybe this is the year that the SEC gets Selection Sunday respect AND it has a chance to flex in late-March. Who knows? Perhaps a season in which it feels like there aren’t any elite teams will reward the SEC, who has 6 teams in the top 30 of the KenPom ratings. Or maybe more frustration awaits.

In theory, there should be plenty of important eyes on the festivities in Nashville this week.

In reality, though, recent history suggests that might not be the case.