Well the SEC got all 7 teams in yesterday...

Posted on: November 28, 2022 at 09:17:16 CT

that were being considered for the VB tourney, including both bubble teams, Auburn and Tennessee, which was a surprise. LSU got in too, despite getting swept at home by Georgia in a critical series. Tennessee is pretty controversial, with an RPI rank of 56, and even stranger, they were not one of the last 4 at large bids (Auburn was). That Tennessee was considered by the selection committee as being better than at least 4 other teams picked is pretty stunning.

I don’t expect the SEC to last long though. 3 teams have to go through a #1 seed in the second round, if they get that far:

Georgia plays 8 seed Towson then 1 seed Texas.
Tennessee gets 8 seed Purdue then 1 seed Louisville.
LSU gets 8 seed Hawaii then 1 seed Stanford.

The other unseeded SEC team Auburn gets 4 seed Creighton then 5 seed Houston.

3 seed Florida gets Florida AM, then 6 seed Iowa St.
3 seed Kentucky gets Loyola Chicago then 6 seed Western Kentucky.
6 seed Arkansas gets Utah St then 3 seed Oregon.

It’s going to be a rough tournament for the conference. Really only 3 teams with a chance of getting to the sweet 16, and the possibility that only 1 of them makes it. I don’t have high confidence this year in either Florida or Kentucky, and Arkansas beating Oregon is a long shot.