ESPN names 4 SEC teams who are ‘sweating out Selection Sunday’ ahead of bracket reveal
By Jacob Moss
Published:
Selection Sunday has finally arrived, and while many programs have already punched their tickets to the big dance or are seen as virtual locks to make the final field of 68, there are a number of others who are sitting on the bubble and will likely be sweating out the selection committee’s decisions.
The SEC is widely viewed as the deepest conference in the nation, and, as such, the league is home to several programs that will be forced to wait and see whether the committee believes they deserve to compete for a National Championship.
ESPN analyst Neil Paine broke down, from an analytical standpoint, how many bids each conference is projected to land, and he believes that Auburn, Missouri, Oklahoma, and Texas are the 4 SEC teams who will be waiting with bated breath to see whether they get in.
Paine says that the Longhorns were on track to earn an at-large bid entering the SEC tournament, but an upset loss in the first round to an upstart Ole Miss squad pushed them onto the bubble.
He also said that the Sooners played themselves onto the bubble with a strong finish to the regular season, while Auburn did the same by collapsing down the stretch and losing 9 of their last 12 regular-season contests.
When it comes to Mizzou, Paine says that their standing “remains strong,” but their biggest threat at the moment is Oklahoma, which could use that late-season surge, which included a win over Mizzou, to bump them out.
For each of these teams, their entire season has come down to Selection Sunday, and it will be interesting to see how the committee views each team’s resume relative to the others and the rest of the field.
The bracket will be revealed at 6 p.m. ET on CBS.
