Auburn, Alabama, Florida headline SEC’s haul in the NCAA selection committee’s early top-16 seeds

Auburn has spent the past month ranked as the nation’s best team in The Associated Press men’s college basketball poll. The committee that will choose the 68-team field for the NCAA Tournament is just as high on the Tigers.

And the Southeastern Conference, for that matter.

Auburn was the top overall seed in the committee’s preliminary rankings unveiled Saturday, while Alabama and Florida joined as No. 1 regional seeds. They were the headliners for a league that had five of the top six seeds and six spots in the 16-seed unveiling with a month left until Selection Sunday.

Duke was the only interruption to the SEC’s running name call at the top, claiming the No. 3 overall seed.

The Tigers have held the top spot in the AP Top 25 for five straight weeks, and in advanced metrics they rank No. 1 in KenPom; No. 2 for Bart Torvik; and No. 3 for Evan Miyakawa. They entered the weekend with a 13-2 record in Quadrant 1 games that headline a postseason resume; no other team had more than eight of those wins.

“Of all the voters in our group that were available to vote, they were the unanimous choice,” committee chairman Bubba Cunningham said on the CBS unveiling broadcast. “So they are clearly our No. 1.”

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That impact trickled further down the bracket, too. Cunningham said five teams were seriously considered for top seeds. Ultimately Tennessee lost out, with Cunningham pointing to Florida’s win over Auburn as the edge for the Gators.

Fittingly, the unveiling came hours before the Tigers visited their in-state rival Crimson Tide in an AP 1-vs-2 throwdown, the first of two regular-season meetings that could alter landing spots by March. Auburn won 94-85.

The seeds

SEC member Texas A&M followed Tennessee as the No. 6 overall seed, followed by Purdue and Houston as regional 2-seeds. Iowa State was next at No. 9 overall, followed by Kentucky, Wisconsin and Arizona as regional 3-seeds.

Texas Tech, Michigan, preseason AP No. 1 Kansas and St. John’s were 4-seeds to round out the top 16.

The regional paths

Auburn is positioned to claim a close-to-home regional route by topping the South bracket in Atlanta, grouped with Texas A&M, Wisconsin and Texas Tech.

Alabama would head to the Midwest running through Indianapolis, followed by Purdue — which would have a home-state advantage in that scenario — Iowa State and Kansas.

Duke led the East, followed by Tennessee, Arizona and St. John’s — which would put Rick Pitino’s surging Red Storm practically in its backyard in Newark, New Jersey.

Meanwhile, with Arizona as the only top-16 seed west of Texas, Florida headlined the West bracket running through San Francisco. The Gators were joined by Houston, Kentucky and Michigan.

Of those groups, Cunningham said the committee made one adjustment to balance bracket strength by swapping the destinations for Michigan and St. John’s.

Regional winners go to San Antonio for the Final Four, with the national semifinals set for April 5 and the title game two nights later in the Alamodome.

Wait list

Cunningham said AP No. 11 Michigan State and No. 18 Marquette are “right there” for consideration of the teams just outside the top 16.

Rankings variations

Of the top-16 seeds, the AP Top 25, KenPom, Torvik, Miyakawa and NCAA’s NET rankings agreed on 11. The outliers were Kentucky, Wisconsin, Michigan, Kansas and St. John’s, with the Wolverines outside the top 16 in all five as of midday Saturday and the Wildcats in three.

Another outlier was Texas A&M, though in the other direction. The Aggies were seeded sixth overall and stand at eighth in the AP Top 25 but rank anywhere from 12th to 16th in KenPom, Torvik, Miyakawa and the NET.

Movement?

Saturday’s reveal is little more than a snapshot of where things stand, but teams listed above the cutline for a top-four regional seed generally stay there.

Since the first seed-reveal show in 2017, 94 of 112 teams (83.9%) have remained as top-16 seeds; that data from the NCAA excludes 2020 due to the COVID-19 pandemic forcing the cancellation of that year’s tournament.

Additionally 22 of 28 teams with a 1-seed ended up on a top line.

Rivalry matters

Cunningham, North Carolina’s athletic director, offered a moment of levity when he just couldn’t bring himself to say rival Duke’s lofty perch during the announcement.

“I can’t do it,” Cunningham quipped as he passed the card to chuckling CBS announcer Adam Zucker to read, adding with a laugh: “I would love to say something good about them, but I can’t.”

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