Hamilton: Will the SEC produce another golden age of college basketball?

The old Big East lives ...

sort of.

The Northeast is no longer the center of the basketball universe and hasnt been for decades.

The old Big East, which provided arguably the golden age of mens college basketball through the 1980s and 90s, officially died in 2013.

Its legends live only in yellowed newspaper clippings, grainy film footage and word-of-mouth tall tales.

But its DNA exists.

Not in Connecticut, winner of the last two national titles.

Rather, its embedded in what we see on SEC courts.

Its evident in the stacked teams with postseason destinies going at it in games that look like the rock fights they had up north.

Change the jerseys and an Auburn vs.

Tennessee or an Alabama vs.

Florida could just as well include Georgetown, St.

Johns, Villanova or any other beast from the Big East back in the day.

And the resemblance to what was once the baddest conference in all the land is proof that football money can create basketball success.

The SEC went a ridiculous 88.9 percent in nonconference play this year, the best showing by a league in nearly 25 years, according to Sportradar.

It has 13 teams in Joe Lunardis latest Bracketology projections .

There are nine SEC teams in the Associated Press Top 25, with Vanderbilt (16-4, 4-3 SEC) likely to join the party after its 74-69 win Saturday over No.

9 Kentucky.

A perfect illustration of the SECs depth: South Carolina's men's team is in last place and the Gamecocks are still a .500 team.

Whats put USC (10-10, 0-7) in the basement is its inability to tread water in league play.

All things considered, its tough to completely condemn the Gamecocks for their ranking.

The SEC has been the best league in the country this year hands-down, Kansas coach Bill Self said last week.

...

I cant believe it will ever leave (being) one or two best leagues in the country moving forward.

That was the plan a decade or so ago for commissioner Greg Sankey and his predecessor, Mike Slive.

And its happening.

Slive and Sankey rallied the SECs membership to step up in basketball, funneling the leagues increasing riches from football toward elevating basketball across the board.

More high-profile coaches were hired, ones who saw the SEC as a destination instead of another rung on a ladder.

Facilities were improved to not only expand arenas, but integrate all of the non-sports entities necessary nowadays to lure crowds.

Mike Tranghese, former commissioner and a main contributor in the creation of the old Big East, was brought aboard as an advisor .

That's a heckuva consigliere to have.

The goal was to create a perfect complement to football.

Instead, in a turn of events, its carrying it.

Thats the case right now.

And last year, to a degree.

Missing the 2024 national title game was expected to be a one-off thing, a reset before a beefed-up 12-team playoff.

But rather than starting another run of dominance, the SEC stumbled throughout the College Football Playoff.

It came a year after Alabama lost in the CFP semifinals prior to a Michigan-Washington championship.

Oh, the hand-wringing, teeth-grinding and long, sorrowful exhales last week throughout the South.

Thats what Ohio State and Notre Dame playing for all the marbles does to a person whether they watch or not.

And plenty did.

The Buckeyes win had an average audience of 22.1 million viewers , more than every other non-NFL sporting event over the past year.

Logic dictates a sizable chunk of those eyeballs were within the SECs massive footprint, proving two things: They're also susceptible to a lot of denial.

The new reality is that the days of football dominance are over.

Pockets of greatness will happen, sure, but extended stretches like weve seen are gone and never coming back.

Its just hard to accept this new reality considering the distraction, that whats happening in basketball seems a lot like what the SEC did in football from 2006 until last year.

That makes the weirdness of it all undeniable: Theres chatter of a possibly historic SEC basketball season running parallel to talk of a disappointing football season.

This wasnt part of the commissioners plan.

But it sure is nice to lean on until football figures itself out and everyone gets acclimated to the new world.

I would choose this league the way it is this year every single year, Kentucky coach Mark Pope said following the Wildcats loss at Vandy.

It can rip you to pieces for sure, but our job is to keep finding a way to get better.

...

It makes us a better team.

I think were really blessed to face this competition every year.

Indeed, iron sharpens iron.

So a bunch of SEC teams might be polished to perfection by the time March arrives.

That is, if the SEC isnt competitive to its own detriment.

Those teams could grind each other to dust before the postseason.

Wait a minute isnt that pretty much what we usually say about football?.

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