Joining the SEC certainly has its benefits for the Oklahoma Sooners, just ask Porter Moser.
The Sooners have been beaten down by their SEC opponents this season at 3-9 and are currently on their second four-game losing streak of the conference slate. Yet, even after so much recent failure, OU is still projected to make the NCAA Tournament.
Loss after loss to such stout competition would seem like a curse from the SEC, but it's as if the blows OU endures doesn't even matter if they come against fellow SEC members.
ESPN's Joe Lunardi has OU as one of the last four teams in. The projected 11 seed is the lowest of the year so far for the Sooners, who have been locked in as a 10 seed most of the season even through losing streaks.
Lunardi has 13 SEC teams making the field of 68 in his latest ESPN Bracketology, which is the most among all conferences. All six opponents left on the Sooners' regular-season schedule are projected to go dancing, with five ranked in the most recent Associated Press Top 25.
And it's not just ESPN. Jerry Palmer of CBS Sports still has OU as a 10 seed and not even on the bubble. Mike DeCourcy from FOX Sports also has the Sooners as an 11 seed like Lunardi.
Nothing can be taken away from the Sooners' hot start. They finished their nonconference schedule undefeated at 13-0 with Quadrant 1 wins against Arizona, Louisville and Michigan. All three are still comfortably in the field of 68.
The Sooners then entered a gauntlet when their first go in the SEC started. Of OU's 12 conference games so far, seven of the Sooners' opponents were ranked when they played them. That included a stretch of five ranked opponents in a row, during which OU went 1-4.
After losing to unranked LSU on Saturday, the Sooners will again get five straight ranked opponents.
However, in OU's three losses to ranked opponents during its current losing streak, it lost by an average of 23.3 points. The Sooners' average margin of defeat against currently ranked SEC teams is 17.8 points with an 0-6 record.
So, yes, the Sooners have to play future NCAA Tournament teams nearly every time they step on the court, but when they do, they regularly get blown out. That might be a sign they don't belong.
LSU, though, is nowhere near sniffing March Madness, but the Tigers still beat OU on Saturday. The Tigers were on a seven-game losing streak and hadn't won a game in the month of February before their trip to Norman. LSU and South Carolina are the only two teams below OU in SEC standings.
OU's deficit to LSU was its first Quadrant 3 loss of the season and by far its worst blemish. The Sooners have one Quadrant 2 loss to Texas, while all other seven losses are Quadrant 1.
The Sooners are being dragged in by their competition right now, or at least how college basketball experts perceive the SEC. Every game left on OU's schedule is a Quadrant 1 matchup. It's impossible for the Sooners to suffer another "bad" loss during the regular season thanks to SEC competition.
The SEC could finish the season as one of the best groups of teams together in the same conference in decades, or maybe even ever. However, OU has been in great conferences before.
Even as recently as last season the Big 12 was considered the strongest league in college basketball, with Moser believing he'd get some relief when the Sooners left for the SEC.
In their last season in the Big 12, the Sooners went 20-12 overall and 8-10 in conference play and never lost more than two games in a row. OU was snubbed from the NCAA Tournament, though, for the third year in a row under Moser.
This season, OU would need to win five of its last six games to even match its conference win total from last year. That would not only punch the Sooners' ticket to the NCAA Tournament, but likely even give them an impressive seed while it left them at home last year.
With the move to the SEC, losses are now benefitting the Sooners even more than wins did in the Big 12. However, the SEC can only carry these Sooners so far, and at some point, they'll need to help themselves in order to play deep in March. But for now, the SEC is going to give OU chance after chance after chance.