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It always means a lot, no matter what year it is.
In the Year 2024, the SEC expanded to 16 with Oklahoma and Texas coming on board. There’s no doubt that adding a pair of premier athletic departments ratcheted that up to a new level.
(Note that things like Oklahoma winning a softball national title for the 4th consecutive year didn’t count as an SEC moment because OU and Texas were still members of the Big 12 during the 2023-24 school year.)
There were no shortage of elite moments. From national champions being crowned to historically successful coaches leaving prominent SEC jobs to Diego Pavia walking into the SEC like he owned it (and everything else), 2024 was a year to remember.
Here were the SEC’s 10 best moments of 2024:
10. Jim Schlossnagle leads A&M to College World Series runner-up finish … and leaves for Texas a day later
How’s that for stirring the pot? No big deal. Just come 1 run short of a national title with one team and leave for that team’s biggest rival the following day. It only made matters worse that following the CWS final loss, Schlossnagle had called a question about initial Texas rumors “unfair” and that he had “poured every ounce of my soul” into the job. Less than 24 hours later, Schlossnagle took the Texas job, adding a fascinating chapter into one of the fiercest rivalries in college athletics.
9. The SEC sweeps men’s and women’s track and field national titles
The Florida men and the Arkansas women both took home national titles back in June. Nickisha Pryce led the way for Arkansas with a collegiate-record 48.89-second 400-meter dash, while the Razorbacks’ collegiate-record 3:17.96 4×400-meter relay clinched the title. Florida continued its dynasty with its third consecutive national title on the men’s side, which made it the first school to 3-peat since Texas A&M did so prior to its SEC arrival in 2009-11.
8. LSU wins its first women’s gymnastics national title
After finishing as a runner-up 4 times in the previous decade, LSU earned its first national title on the mat. Haleigh Bryant (All-Around) and Aleah Finnegan (Floor) both took home individual national titles, while Konnor McClain’s beam performance allowed LSU to rally back against Utah. That came after LSU won national titles in baseball and women’s basketball in 2023.
7. In the first Texas-Texas A&M game in 13 years, the Longhorns earn an SEC Championship berth
This rivalry should never have gone more than a decade without being played, but bringing it back was always going to be a huge deal. It only added to the drama that this game was essentially an SEC semifinal, with the winner earning a spot in the SEC Championship Game. The Longhorns clinched that without allowing A&M to score an offensive touchdown. To reach Atlanta in Year 1 in the SEC — something A&M hasn’t accomplished in 13 years in the conference — certainly was a topic of conversation in the Lone Star State.
6. John Calipari leaves Kentucky for Arkansas
After Jack Gohlke led Oakland to a stunning upset of Kentucky in the first round of the NCAA Tournament, the Wildcats appeared content to retain Calipari even as his approval rating dipped to a new low. Then Calipari shocked the college basketball world by leaving Kentucky for the vacant Arkansas job following Eric Musselman’s departure to USC. One of the SEC’s most successful coaches of the 21st century made a move that felt like it was more of a message board fantasy than reality.
5. Alabama reaches its first Final Four
Nate Oats did what he couldn’t do a year earlier when Alabama was the No. 1 overall seed — that is, lead the Tide to its first Final Four ever. Nobody in crimson will ever forget the heroics of Grant Nelson against UNC in the Sweet 16, though Mark Sears’ brilliance throughout the 2023-24 season will live on in Alabama lore.
4. Diego Pavia and Vandy stun No. 1 Alabama
As fast as you can say “Vandy, we’re f—— turnt,” Pavia and the Dores made the Tide’s No. 1 ranking a thing of the past. Vandy’s first top-5 win in program history was that much more stunning after the Tide beat No. 1 Georgia in a thriller a week earlier. Pavia leading Vandy as a 3-touchdown underdog had the capacity crowd so fired up that Commodores fans threw the goalposts into the Cumberland River. It doesn’t get more turnt than that.
3. Tennessee wins its first College World Series
Finally, the Vols broke through. They did so as the No. 1 overall seed in the NCAA Tournament, which marked the first time since 1999 Miami that the top seed took home the national title. Call Tony Vitello and Co. the villains, if you will. What was clear was Tennessee was the best team in the sport, and it’ll be a force until further notice.
2. Dawn Staley leads South Carolina past Caitlin Clark and Iowa for a perfect season
Yeah, it took a banked 3-pointer against Tennessee in the SEC Tournament to keep perfection alive, but Staley pulled it off with a bunch of new faces, and she did so in title-clinching fashion against Clark. A record 19 million people tuned into the Gamecocks’ Sunday afternoon victory against Iowa. South Carolina reminded the world that as generationally talented as Clark was, it is the true gold standard in the sport.
1. Nick Saban retires
With all due respect to any onfield feats in 2024, nothing was more significant than the greatest college football coach of all time calling it a career. Saban did so after Alabama fell to Michigan in the Playoff semifinal, so we didn’t get any sort of retirement tour. Instead, we got an announcement, a 3-day search and a hire of Kalen DeBoer by the end of the week. Saban seamlessly stepped into his role at College GameDay while Alabama seamlessly … well, let’s just say Alabama’s transition in a post-Saban world had more bumps in the road than Tide fans were accustomed to seeing in the previous 17 years.
Connor O'Gara is the senior national columnist for Saturday Down South. He's a member of the Football Writers Association of America. After spending his entire life living in B1G country, he moved to the South in 2015.
