Most of you have heard by now that the SEC voted to eliminate divisions in basketball beginning next year, but you may not know that the vote was 11-1. We’ll get to that in a minute. The reason to eliminate divisions is fairly obvious: one division *cough* East *cough* is almost always tougher than the other and with the schools only playing extra-divisional teams once per year, they are not getting the strength of schedule needed to make it into the NCAA tournament. By eliminating divisions, lower-ranked teams will have a chance to play the higher-ranked teams twice. That will improve the lower-ranked teams’ strength of schedule and hopefully get more SEC teams into the NCAA tournament.
Now back to that 11-1 vote. As I’m sure you can tell by the title of this article, the lone dissenting vote was by Rick Stansbury of Mississippi State. Andy Katz reported on why [URL=”http://espn.go.com/mens-college-basketball/blog/_/name/katz_andy/id/6622656/fans-ultimately-lose-out”]Coach Stansbury voted against the change[/URL], his reason being, “I…think it will take away some of the fans excitement”. I see. I’m sure it has absolutely nothing to do with the fact that if there are no more divisions, his team just moved from perennial #2 in a small pond to perennial #6 in a slightly larger pond. I’m sure he voted to keep divisions in the SEC because he’s worried about the fans.
For what it’s worth, I do sense a slight power shift in the former divisions starting next year. With Bruce Pearl leaving Tennessee, expect them to fall from being a powerhouse for a while. Also, with Mike Anderson returning to Arkansas, expect them to regain status as a powerhouse. Katz picks the pecking order for the SEC next year at Kentucky, Vanderbilt, Alabama, Florida and then Mississippi State. I see Arkansas taking that 5-spot. You heard it here first.
