Powerhouse Conferences Make SEC Look Like a One-Hit Wonder

Ahh the SEC, the powerhouse of college football. The last three national champions, five BCS titles, perennial forces like Florida, LSU, Georgia, Auburn, Tennessee, the biggest names in coaching with Meyer, Spurrier, Miles and Richt. Its a proud tradition of winning. So how come it doesn't translate over to basketball? Sure Billy Donovan led Florida to back-to-back national championships with a stellar cast led by the Hawks' current center, Al Hoford... but shouldn't that have helped make the SEC more competitive? Kentucky has fallen off the map.. Tennessee has never lived up to the hype.. Florida still hasn't reloaded... Alabama showed a glimpse of potential before disappearing... so what happened? The ACC and Big East are running circles around the SEC, pumping out half a dozen top-tier teams every year. Its absurd. Let's check the current rankings:

1. Wake Forest (ACC)
2. Duke (ACC)
3. UCONN (Big East)
4. Pittsurgh (Big East)
5. UNC (ACC)
8. Syracuse (Big East)
9. Louisville (Big East)
10. Clemson (ACC)
11. Marquette (Big East)
12. Georgetown (Big East)

This is unbelievable folks. Yes I know the Big East has about twenty teams, but to have half of the top 12 in one conference is silly. Yes I also know that basketball rankings don't mean a whole lot (can you say playoff system?), but for two conferences to absolutely dominate the rankings is just wrong. Florida sits at 24, the sole ranked SEC team. The Big East has 8. ACC has 4 (all in the top 10), as does the Big 10. The Big 12? 3 teams. Pac 10? 2. And then there's the SEC with one - and they aren't even ranked by both polls!

So what did Billy Donovan do to the conference with those two championships? Did he make the SEC look like a breeding ground for NBA-caliber, Final Four talent? Did he show the country that the SEC can dominate football AND basketball for years to come? Did he show the coaches in his own conference that, yes, even they can recruit a championship team? It doesn't look like it. It looks like all he did was show coaches in the Big East and the ACC that if they let any more top-shelf recruits slip through, it could come back to haunt them (and Donovan's leaving for Orlando before reconsidering and returning to Gainesville sure didn't help).

Here's to hoping that the SEC can provide some kind of competitive team in the tournament this March (for crying out loud, the SEC champion was Georgia last year!!).. or its going to be another long offseason for SEC fans, players and coaches.