Will SEC set a record for most first-round wins in NCAA Tournament, too?
By Chris Wright
Published:
The SEC has a league-record eight teams in the NCAA Tournament.
Four play Thursday. The remaining four start their quest Friday.
Is is possible that the league also could set a new standard for first-round wins? They’ll certainly have an opportunity.
The SEC’s record is 6, set in the 1999 NCAA Tournament, when its teams went 6-0. Two other years, the SEC won 5 first-round games (records don’t include play-in games).
ESPN’s BPI heavily favors 5 SEC teams to win their first-round game (Tennessee, Auburn, Florida, Texas A&M and Kentucky). Missouri (45.9 percent chance of winning) and Arkansas (41.8) are slight underdogs. BPI doesn’t like Alabama’s chances (36.4) of beating Virginia Tech.
Here’s the SEC’s annual first-round record from the past 20 years.
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Managing Editor
A 30-time APSE award-winning editor with previous stints at the Miami Herald, The Indianapolis Star and News & Observer, Executive Editor Chris Wright oversees editorial operations for Saturday Down South.
