College basketball rankings: SEC continues dominant run in nonconference games, has 10 teams in Top 25 And 1

The SEC is 42–2 as a conference over the past 13 days with wins over Kansas, Gonzaga, Purdue, Illinois, North Carolina, Clemson, Ohio State, Louisville, Creighton, Arizona State and Michigan (twice). I know some of you might be tired of hearing it, but we really are watching arguably the most impressive non-league performance by a conference in the history of college basketball.

Current SEC record: 157-20.

Every other power conference has at least twice as many losses. No other power conference is within 11 victories. The SEC’s top-ranked KenPom.com rating is up to +20.01, which is 3.20 points higher than the second-best league (Big 12). As longtime researcher Jared Berson noted, the SEC is now an incredible 19-8 in nonconference games against teams ranked in the Associated Press Top 25 poll.

“I think this non-conference performance is such an outlier,” Berson tweeted, “that it will never be matched.”

There are 10 SEC schools in Friday morning’s updated CBS Sports Top 25 And 1 daily college basketball rankings — including each of the top two (No. 1 Tennessee, No. 2 Auburn), three of the top four (No. 4 Kentucky), four of the top six (No. 6 Alabama), five of the top eight (No. 8 Florida), six of the top 11 (No. 11 Ole Miss), seven of the top 14 (No. 14 Texas A&M), and eight of the top 17 (No. 17 Mississippi State).

Then there’s No. 25 Oklahoma and No. 26 Georgia, the latter of which improved to 10-1 with a 100-49 victory over Buffalo on Thursday night that provided the SEC with its 10 double-digit win of the week. It’s an interesting season the Bulldogs are having, almost entirely off of the national radar, mostly because nine of their 11 games have been played against teams ranked 98th or worse in the NET. But, again, Georgia is 10-1 with wins over St. John’s and Notre Dame; the lone loss is to a Marquette team that’s No. 9 in the Top 25 And 1. That’s a solid body of work nearly seven weeks into the season.

Am I ready to completely vouch for Georgia?

Not quite. I need to see more.

But 10-1 through 11 games has definitely exceeded expectations, and as long as the Bulldogs can avoid upsets in their final two non-league games against Charleston Southern and South Carolina State, they might not even have to go .500 the rest of the way to secure an at-large bid to the 2025 NCAA Tournament.

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