As the NCAA Tournament draws nearer, it’s a great debate: which SEC program has the best football and basketball teams combined?

Traditional basketball schools like Kentucky and Arkansas grin at that one, while programs like Georgia groan. (Normally, anyway. More on that later.)

We’ve decided to rank each SEC program both all-time and based on the current 2014-15 school year. We created a simple formula, ranking each team 1 to 14 in both sports and adding the two totals. Lowest score wins.

ALL-TIME

It’s a forgettable year for the Florida Gators in the two biggest men’s sports. The most forgettable in many years.

The Gators fired football coach Will Muschamp after a second consecutive disappointing season. Thank goodness for basketball, right? Well, Billy Donovan’s team started the season ranked No. 7, but now Florida could miss the NCAA tournament altogether. (The team is 0-7 against teams that ESPN’s Joe Lunardi currently projects to make the field.)

But take heart, Florida fans. A historical look shows us that your program is the best all-time when combining football and basketball. The football team was nothing spectacular before the Steve Spurrier/Urban Meyer eras, but that combination has thrusted the Gators into the Top 5 all-time on the gridiron.

Similarly, Donovan’s basketball teams represent the golden era of the program in the sport. If we only went back to the early 1990s, Florida would threaten as No. 1 in the SEC in both football and basketball.

Speaking of Spurrier, his Gamecocks still haven’t done enough to lift the program far from the league’s basement when considering all-time results. South Carolina is the only program to rank in the bottom three in both sports.

Thanks to strong basketball histories, the Wildcats and Razorbacks slide into the top half of the SEC all-time.

Team All-Time Football All-Time Basketball Total
1. Florida 4 3 7
T2. Alabama 1 7 8
T2. Tennessee 2 6 8
4. LSU 5 5 10
5. Missouri 7 4 11
T6. Arkansas 10 2 12
T6. Kentucky 11 1 12
8. Georgia 3 11 14
9. Texas A&M 9 8 17
10. Auburn 6 12 18
11. Ole Miss 8 14 22
12. Mississippi State 13 10 23
13. Vanderbilt 14 9 23
14. South Carolina 12 13 25

THE 2014-15 SEASON

The Bulldogs may have failed to win the SEC East, but thanks to a big road shutout against Missouri and an impressive bowl win against Louisville, SDS ranked Georgia second in our final power rankings.

Currently Lunardi projects the Bulldogs as a 10 seed in the NCAA Tournament. So, UGA fans, for this season, anyway, you can claim bragging rights as easily the best SEC program for football and basketball.

Alabama had an opportunity to challenge, but since Jan. 13, the Tide lost a two-point game at South Carolina and lost by two in overtime at Arkansas. Win those games and Bama’s basketball team is 14-4, 4-1 in the SEC and a borderline tournament team. Still, making the College Football Playoff and fielding a middling hoops team in a lackluster SEC is enough to rank the program second in our combined rankings for 2014-15.

Missouri ranks 11th thanks to a much weaker than usual hoops squad, in contention as the worst in the SEC.

Florida may be No. 1 all-time, but the Gators barely fend off South Carolina and Vanderbilt as the worst in the conference this season.

Team All-Time Football All-Time Basketball Total
1. Georgia 2 3 5
2. Alabama 1 8 9
3. Arkansas 8 2 10
4. LSU 7 4 11
5. Kentucky 13 1 14
T6. Auburn 5 10 15
T6. Ole Miss 6 9 15
T6. Texas A&M 9 6 15
T6. Tennessee 10 5 15
10. Mississippi State 4 12 16
11. Missouri 3 14 17
12. Florida 12 7 19
13. South Carolina 11 13 24
14. Vanderbilt 14 11 25