SEC Stumbling Along In Latest RPI Ratings

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The folks at RealTimeRPI.com have updated their ratings… but the SEC as a league still lags behind five other conferences.  That won’t help at tourney time.  Making matters worse?  Not a single SEC squad is ranked in the RPI Top 10.

Clearly SEC East teams are in better shape than SEC West teams.  If a West team wants to make the NCAA Tournament — and I’m talking to you Mississippi State — it will have to take care of business when it gets a shot at an East team.

Below are the records for the SEC’s tourney-hopes-alive teams against Top 50 opponents, any losses to schools outside the RPI Top 50, and remaining games against Top 50 foes:


Kentucky
Record vs RPI Top 50: 4-3
Losses outside Top 50: 0
Remaining Top 50 games: 7 (Georgia, at Florida, Tennessee, at Vanderbilt, Florida, Vanderbilt, at Tennessee)

Florida
Record vs RPI Top 50: 3-2
Losses outside Top 50: 2 (Jacksonville, South Carolina)
Remaining Top 50 games: 8 (at Georgia, Vanderbilt, Kentucky, at South Carolina, Tennessee, Georgia, at Kentucky, at Vanderbilt)

Vanderbilt
Record vs RPI Top 50: 2-3
Losses outside Top 50: 1 (at South Carolina)
Remaining Top 50 games: 7 (St. Mary’s, at Florida, Kentucky, at Georgia, Tennessee, at Kentucky, Florida)

Tennessee
Record vs RPI Top 50: 4-1
Losses outside Top 50: 5 (Oakland, at Charlotte, Southern Cal, College of Charleston, at Arkansas)
Remaining Top 50 games: 7 (at Georgia, at UConn, at Kentucky, at Florida, Georgia, at Vanderbilt, Kentucky)

Georgia
Record vs RPI Top 50: 1-3
Losses outside Top 50: 0
Remaining Top 50 games: 7 (Tennessee, Florida, at Kentucky, Xavier, Vanderbilt, at Tennessee, at Florida)

Miss. State
Record vs RPI Top 50: 0-1
Losses outside Top 50: 6 (Florida Atlantic, ETSU, Virginia Tech, Washington State, at Hawaii, Alabama)
Remaining Top 50 games: 5 (at Georgia, Vanderbilt, Florida, at Kentucky, at Tennessee)


In our view, the SEC is likely looking at a 4-bid NCAA Tournament.  The five top teams in the SEC are currently alive for a bid due to their resume.  Mississippi State is still alive — barely — because with a strong finish it might convince selection committee members that it would have been a better team at the first of the year had Renardo Sidney and Dee Bost been eligible to play.  But State only has five games against Top 50 opponents left.  They will probably need to finish with at least three (and probably four) wins out of those five games… and a conference record of 11-5 at worst.  And then MSU would need to do a little something in the SEC Tournament as well.