Arkansas Business

This story is from the archives of ArkansasSports360.com.

Several in the media, including our Chris Bahn and 103.7 "The Zone's" Pat Bradley, wondered since last week's decision at the Southeastern Conference spring meetings in Sandestin, Fla., how scrapping divisions for basketball might help the SEC look prettier to the NCAA Selection Committee. Here's how.

Perception is reality, and the NCAA will perceive a team from the woeful SEC West as "being better" if the league is an all-inclusive 12 teams instead of six-team divisions, with one group significantly stronger than the other. The perception last season was that winning the West, even as easily as did the Tide, was no big feat. Discounted was the overall 12-4 league record accomplished, as post-season play showed, in what was an underrated basketball conference.

To wit, we can agree that Alabama's first-place finish in the SEC West at 12-4 didn't help the Crimson Tide, since that mean the Tide only won the division from basketball hell, the rear of the division being brought up by laughable LSU and Auburn.

However, here's how the SEC would have looked in March 2011 had the league scrapped the two divisions at last year's spring lounging and sipping on the Gulf Coast beach:

1. Florida 13-3
2. Alabama 12-4
3. Kentucky 10-6
4. Vanderbilt 9-7
5. Georgia 9-7
6. Mississippi St. 9-7
7. Tennessee 8-8
8. Ole Miss 7-9
9. Arkansas 7-9
10. South Carolina 5-11
11. Auburn 4-12
12. LSU 3-13

It was easy to discount Alabama's divisional championship because of the mediocrity of the West as a whole. But would the selection committee have been as quick to pooh-pooh Alabama's second-place finish in an overall 12-team SEC? We think not.

Alabama's poor play in November and early December, before a young team came together for second-year coach Anthony Grant -- snubbed by the NCAA but still reaching the championship game of the NIT -- along with the SEC West's poor showing doomed the Crimson Tide's chances. Even two wins, including a victory in the SEC Tournament, over NCAA pick Georgia didn't help the Crimson Tide.

But, consider a 12-team league without divisions. While still seeing Alabama's overall record and Ratings Percentage Index as not as strong as some other bubble possibilities, can anyone believe the NCAA would bypass the second-place team in the SEC while pickiing the next four teams behind it? Consider that Alabama had four wins in four games against three of the four in that group.

Yes, Alabama beat Kentucky and Georgia at home. Alabama also had a key road win at NCAA pick Tennessee and Mississippi State and beat South Carolina. Is it Alabama's fault the SEC schedule forced the Tide to play LSU and Auburn, beat them twice, and still drop in RPI because of it?

Could the Tide have done itself more favors by not losing in holiday tournaments or on neutral sites to Seton Hall, Iowa and Oklahoma State? Sure.

The the picture looks prettier for Alabama or any team in the top 3 of a 12-team SEC, rather than split into divisions in which one is considered terrible.

The SEC should also get a boost in the perception end with national media after Florida and Kentucky's NCAA showings, as well as Bama's run through the NIT. Winning its share of games in the early SEC-Big East Challenge wouldn't hurt, either. Also, Kentucky is always viewed as the SEC's barometer of strength, and the league will benefit from a fast start by John Calipari's new recruits, joining up with talented Terrence Jones and a handful of holdovers