Once upon a time, not too long ago, Florida Basketball was one of the only redeeming qualities in the SEC. As recent as 2021 the conference only got six teams into the NCAA Tournament and in 2016 just three teams from the conference made it to the Big Dance.
But in 2025, it will be easier to compose a list of teams from the SEC who didn't make the NCAA Tournament than who did, and college basketball analyst Jay Bilas has taken notice.
Florida Basketball: No Rest
This week Auburn and Alabama will face off in a matchup of #1 vs #2. This sort of matchup felt impossible even five years ago, but in 2025 there is no denying the strength of the conference.
Bilas commented on the Paul Finebaum Show that "This is the most powerful basketball league from top to bottom that there has ever been."
He's been watching basketball for decades, but @JayBilas has never seen anything like what SEC Men's hoops teams are doing this year: pic.twitter.com/zM9ZQS0ngv
— Paul Finebaum (@finebaum) February 11, 2025
It is a strong praise for the SEC, but it also highlights the pathway Florida will have to navigate in 2025. The Gators are 21-3 and are off to their best start in over a decade, but the fact they are doing it against a conference that affords no off nights is what makes this season even more impressive.
Take last night's game against Mississippi State as Exhibit A. In prior seasons, if Florida was ranked 3rd in the country, there would have been next to no scenario where the Gators would be an underdog in Starkville. And yet, Florida was a 2.5-point underdog and trailed at halftime before putting together a massive second half.
The fact that Florida has played and defeated the number one team in the country twice, and it was two different teams with neither of them being Kentucky speaks to the strength of the SEC.
Add in the fact the virtually every game in the SEC is either a Quad 1 or Quad 2 game, and Bilas isn't speaking hyperbole when it stats the SEC is strong from top to bottom.
Even Florida's next opponent, South Carolina, isn't a bad team. While they are 10-13 and are winless in SEC play, they still have a NET ranking in the top 100 because they beat Clemson, Boston College, Virginia Tech, and Xavier during non-conference play.