The University of Florida won its third men’s basketball title on Monday, snapping a 13-year drought for the SEC. At the end of a season featuring a handful of dominant teams, one school—and one conference—stood above the rest.
The Gators beat Houston 65-63 on Monday, thanks to a comeback from down double-digits in the second half.
Florida finished the season on a 12-game winning streak that included its first Southeastern Conference tournament win since 2014. UF beat two SEC teams ranked in the top 10 in Nashville, and faced a third—No. 1 overall seed Auburn—in the Final Four. The Gators didn’t lose to a team outside the SEC all year.
A record-shattering 14 SEC schools made this year’s tournament field after the league’s teams won 88.9% of their nonconference games. Seven of them reached the Sweet 16, another historic high. Two of those seven would be beaten by conference foes. Florida was never knocked out at all, emerging from the first Final Four since 2008 made up of all No. 1 seeds. Duke entered March as the individual odds-on favorite, but analytical models gave the SEC schools close to a 50% chance of taking home the title, one way or another.
A decade ago, SEC schools were wary of putting resources into basketball, thinking it would be read by their rabid fan bases as a diminishment of football. But conference leadership from commissioner Greg Sankey on down disabused athletic directors of the notion that the decision was zero-sum.
Top coaching hires and facility upgrades would beget coveted recruits, improved performances, stronger schedules, more tournament bids and increased attendance in a harmonious cycle that lifted every program and ultimately pushed Florida to a title. The league’s record $70 million haul for tournament success is now likely to further fuel the sport-consuming fire.
SEC, a football conference? “We want to be an everything league,” Sankey said this March.
Florida is still just one of three SEC schools to raise a championship banner, and the league isn’t content to stop there. Alabama has already landed former five-star prospect Jalil Bethea, who is transferring from Miami. Kentucky, Tennessee and Texas have all grabbed multiple transfers too. Auburn is aggressively playing portal catchup after its semifinal appearance. John Calipari is expected to add to Arkansas’ incoming crop, which already includes two top-10 recruits.
America’s future hoop stars seem to be singing a common chorus: If you can’t beat ‘em, join ‘em.
A confluence of rule changes, led by transfer freedom and NIL payments, has stirred concern that Cinderella’s slipper has been permanently shattered. Four of Florida’s five biggest contributors transferred from mid-major programs. The other arrived from Australia.
Florida coach Todd Golden has touted the team’s moneyball approach to roster development and game management. But he had to leave mid-major San Francisco for Gainesville’s high-major war chest to achieve the ultimate goal.
All that said, there’s a chance that 2024-25 will represent the SEC’s basketball zenith, because the rules are changing. Again.
Starting next academic year, schools will likely be able to share $20.5 million in revenue with their players for the first time.
This time, it is zero sum.
Houston, in the Big 12, is among the universities willing to allocate a relatively high percentage of that don’t-call-it-a-salary-cap money to its men’s basketball players. Ole Miss or Alabama administrators wouldn’t dare suggest such a tactic. Those are still football schools, after all, regardless of what happens in March.
Are we headed, then, toward an era of renewed parity, if not for the true mid-majors, at least for the ACC, Big 12 and Big East schools that have long valued hardwood hardware? Or will the SEC and its peers in the Big Ten simply find new ways to turn their financial advantages into victories in any sport they want?
Sankey has said his schools’ leaders have begun discussing how they’re going to compete under the new structures. Others have started whispering about the possibility of money heading back under the table.
“Don’t believe this $20.5 million salary cap,” UConn women’s basketball coach Geno Auriemma said last week. “You think anybody in their right mind [in college] is going to stick to 20.5?”
Until Monday night, the burden of proof was on the SEC to show it really, truly took basketball seriously. Now, the responsibility turns to everyone else. Who can keep up?