Six stats that show the SEC's men's college basketball dominance - ESPN

The story of the SEC's dominance this season began back in early December during the SEC/ACC Challenge: After nine games — a 9-0 SEC record on day one — the SEC had already clinched the two-day, 16-game conference challenge.

Even though the ACC is the worst of the power conferences in 2024-25, the numbers — and social media posts — were eye-opening. The Challenge ended with a 14-2 edge to the SEC, one of the first signs of the overwhelming supremacy displayed.

The conference's success wasn't surprising: The SEC had a terrific offseason in the transfer portal, landing 17 of ESPN's top 50 transfers. In a piece looking at the winners and losers of the portal, the SEC had 10 schools in categories where they helped themselves — and only one listed among schools that were hurt by the portal. It had nine teams ranked in the preseason AP poll and currently boasts four of the 10 top-performing freshmen in the country.

(As an aside, the SEC's ability to stockpile talent isn't slowing anytime soon. For the second year in a row, the SEC will be bringing in the most ESPN 100 freshmen in the country next season. The league had 26 top-100 prospects committed to member schools at the end of the early signing period.)

But no one could predict a showing that two months into the season is approaching «best-ever» status.

Conference play in the SEC begins Saturday, highlighted by Saturday's two Sonic Blockbuster games, Florida's trip to Kentucky (11 a.m. ET, ESPN) and Tennessee hosting Arkansas (1 p.m., ESPN). Later in the day, unbeaten Oklahoma heads to Alabama (6 p.m., SEC Network) and an in-state rivals Texas A&M and Texas clash (8 p.m., SEC Network).

Is the SEC having the best season of any conference all time? And will it continue in