Sankey: Record 14 NCAA bids 'justified' for SEC

NASHVILLE, Tenn. -- The SEC is on the cusp of college basketball history, as the league is poised to break the record for most NCAA tournament bids by a conference.

The question lingering over Selection Sunday: How many more bids will the SEC receive than the current record of 11, set by the Big East in 2011?

The SEC projects to have as many as 14 teams, and league commissioner Greg Sankey told ESPN on Friday night that number would be "justified," considering how the league has performed this season.

"It's a unicorn league right now," Sankey told ESPN. "We're not going to change our name, but we stand alone historically. And I think that'll be rewarded."

Texas, which projects as the final team in the NCAA tournament in Joe Lundardi's latest Bracketology, would be the SEC's 14th team. The Longhorns could have given their chances a significant boost against No. 8 Tennessee on Friday, but they fell 83-72.

Vols coach Rick Barnes said afterward that there's "no doubt" that Texas (19-15) is an NCAA team.

"I think we should have 14 teams in the NCAA tournament," Barnes said.

Strengthening the SEC's case for 14 NCAA bids includes a non-conference schedule that is statistically among the best in the history of the sport. That includes a 30-4 record against the ACC, a 14-2 record against the Big 12 and a 10-9 record against the Big Ten.

The SEC's overall winning percentage in non-conference play was 88.9%, which led to a bubble team like Texas having seven Quad 1 wins.

Sankey didn't mention North Carolina by name, but he did appear to reference the Tar Heels' tournament profile of a 1-12 record in Quad 1 games.

"You got somebody that's got a nice NET (ranking), but one Quad 1 win. LSU has two Quad 1 wins for goodness sake," Sankey said, referring to the SEC's Tigers, who finished 15th in the conference and had just three league wins.

He added: "We went 30-4 against the ACC. Put their high-end teams in our league, and they're in a very different place. You do that with the Big 12, they're in a very different place."

Sankey referenced the SEC slate on March 1, which included No. 1 Auburn at No. 17 Kentucky, No. 12 Texas A&M at No. 3 Florida and No. 6 Alabama at No. 5 Tennessee. It marked the first time in college basketball history that any conference had three top-20 games in one day.

"That's the unicorn we've created this year," Sankey said. "And I hope our coaches are proud. I hope our athletics directors are proud. We had a great visit with our presidents and chancellors, where I went through some graphics of where we were from 2006 to 2015 and then 2016 and beyond. And it's been building, and it'd be nice to kick the door down as they say."

From 2012-13 through 2015-16, the SEC had three NCAA bids in three of those seasons. The league totaled 14 bids in that four-year span, the same number it aspires to this year. The SEC has grown since then, from 14 to 16 schools, but the basketball turnaround in less than a decade has been remarkable.

Sankey said he told his staff in January that any conversations about the number of league schools in the tournament should be centered around at least 14 schools.

"We should never talk about less than 14," Sankey said. "Literally, we said every expectation we communicate has at least 14, and maybe more, depending on how the season plays out. And I think that was fully justified then. And I think it continues to be justified now.

"And I feel good about breaking the record. We have to trust the committee with decisions. But when you look at wins in the conference against great teams, the number of Quad 1 experiences, Quad 2 experience, and the number of wins with our 14 teams, it's incomparable."