Even though the Oklahoma Sooners and Texas Longhorns were still battling in their regular-season finale, the bracket was already set Saturday night for the 2025 SEC Men's Basketball Tournament.
With the addition of OU and Texas, the bracket was expanded to 16 teams to make it bigger than ever during a season that it will also be tougher than ever before with 13 teams projected to represent the conference in the NCAA Tournament, according to ESPN's Joe Lunardi.
The new 16-team bracket gives the top 4 seeds (Auburn, Florida, Alabama and Tennessee, respectively) two byes straight to the quarterfinals on Friday after two extra days of rest. Seeds 5-8 (Texas A&M, Kentucky, Missouri and Ole Miss, respectively) also get first-round byes.
The Sooners will be playing Day 1 as the 14 seed in their first SEC tournament. OU will get a rematch against 11 seed Georgia, which beat the Sooners 72-62 on Jan. 11 in Athens, Georgia. Lunardi believes the Sooners can go dancing with a win against Texas on Saturday and a first-round victory over Georgia.
The winner of OU and Georgia will get 6 seed Kentucky. The Sooners narrowly upset the then-No. 17 Wildcats last week in Norman. Kentucky escaped Lloyd Noble Center with an 83-82 win.
Other first-round matchups include 9 seed Arkansas vs. 16 seed South Carolina to play 8 seed Ole Miss, 12 seed Vanderbilt vs. 13 seed Texas to play 5 seed Texas A&M and 10 seed Mississippi State vs. 15 seed LSU to play 7 seed Missouri.
Vanderbilt could hold a small advantage with the tournament being hosted down the road at Bridgestone Arena in Nashville, Tennessee.
🏀 The Bracket.
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