At first glance, the SEC's prospects for 2015-16 appear excellent. My colleague Eamonn Brennan has Kentucky ranked No. 1 in his preseason top 25, and I myself have declared LSU incoming freshman Ben Simmons the No. 1 player in the nation for next season. Having perhaps the nation's best team and individual player are boasts any conference commissioner would be proud to trumpet.
The outlook for the rest of the SEC, however, is somewhat less encouraging. UK notwithstanding, the league as a whole is mired in a prolonged multiyear slump.
The last time the SEC ranked in the top three nationally for conference strength at KenPom was back in 2007. Then again, the Big 12 was tops in the country in that department last season and people didn't seem too terribly impressed once Baylor lost to Georgia State and Iowa State fell to UAB. Might there be other non-laptop measures where the SEC fares better?
Not really. In terms of NCAA tournament wins since 2000, the SEC (128) lags far behind the ACC (195) and Big Ten (163 -- all figures based on current memberships). Furthermore, the SEC's two most successful programs, Kentucky and Florida, have accounted for a much larger share of the league's tournament wins over that span (54 percent) than have Duke and North Carolina in the ACC (39 percent) or Michigan State and Wisconsin in the Big Ten (42). Not only is the SEC a duopoly; it's an unusually weak one.
Granted, this pendulum will swing back in the league's favor at some point. It was only a year ago, after all, that both Kentucky and Florida reached the Final Four. I expect the SEC to regain its early-2000s form someday, and most importantly UK will continue to be UK until further notice. Nevertheless, here are four sound reasons to fret about the SEC in the near term: