College Football Crossover: SEC Basketball in 2025

The Southeastern Conference (SEC) experienced a very Multiverse thing this year.

The SEC has been the preeminent conference in college football for decades now but it’s never been able to garner the same level of success on the basketball court. At least until this season when the paradigm pulled a complete 180. SEC basketball teams had a truly standout collective performance while the football programs struggled a lot. To be honest, I’d be surprised if any of the conference’s leadership even noticed the run the basketball programs were on as they’ve been festering on the CFB “situation.”

I’m not a basketball guy by any stretch but because this is the Multiverse what’s the harm with taking a slight detour. Let’s lay out the detailed day-night picture of basketball and football for the SEC during 2024-2025.

Big Picture

The 2025 basketball season was statistically the SEC’s best showing in modern history. As a group, the 16 teams went 367-195 (.653). The next strongest season was 2007, when the conference’s 12 teams finished out 253-153 (.623). Some runner ups for strongest season:

1. 2004: 227-138 (.622)

2. 1998: 233-143 (.620)

3. 2001: 237-146 (.619)

Tournament Context

This year’s March Madness was also historic for SEC basketball. They added Oklahoma and Texas from the Big 12 and ended up sending 14 of their 16 members into the Tournament. The most they’ve ever had earn Tournament bids in prior years was eight (2024, 2023, 2018). The CFP is getting wonkier by the second but I think it’ll be a while before it has anything on how the NCAA mystifies the relationship between the regular season and postseason in basketball.

The two programs who didn’t make the postseason cut were LSU and South Carolina. The Tigers finished their season 14-18 (.438) overall and 3-15 (.167) against conference opponents. The Gamecocks ended 2025 12-20 (.375) overall and 2-16 (.111) against SEC teams.

Auburn and Florida were the major standouts in a year of talented basketball teams from the South. Auburn was the regular season champion and finished 32-6 (.842) overall and 15-3 (.833) against conference opponents. Florida was the conference champion and their overall record was 35-4 (.897) and the conference record was 14-4 (.778). The two teams both landed in the Final Four and the Gators walked away with the 2025 national championship.

And the numbers show that when Florida basketball is good, SEC basketball is good. They’ve claimed two previous titles, the most recent being in 2007, the conference’s second strongest collective season. The Gators also pulled out a National Championship in the 2006 season, when the 12 teams went 240-149 (.617).

Basketball-Football Comparisons

And for the real CFB Multiverse part: the basketball-football comparisons.

2024 Sport Advantage – Football

Only four SEC schools had football teams outperform basketball teams during the 2024-2025 period.

Georgia was the conference’s top performer in this subgroup. The Bulldog’s basketball team entered the Tournament as a 9-seed and exited in Round 1. They earned a First Round bye in the College Football Playoff but lost their first and only game in the Quarterfinals.

Texas’ football program had a steeper advantage over the basketball program. The Longhorns got an 11-seed for the Men’s Tournament but didn’t make it out of the First Four. They earned an at-large bid to the CFP and ended up going all the way to the Semifinal round.

Neither LSU or South Carolina had great basketball or football years. LSU was 14-18 (.438) overall and 3-15 (,167) against SEC teams in basketball. South Carolina finished its 2025 basketball season with a 12-20 (.375) overall record and 2-16 (.111) conference record. The two football programs ended 2024 with identical records. 9-4 overall and 5-3 against SEC competition.

2024 Sport Advantage – Even

Tennessee’s basketball and football programs performed pretty comparably during 2024-2025. The basketball team earned a 2-seed for March Madness and got eliminated in the Elite 8. The Volunteers’ football team found themselves with an at-large bid into the Playoff’s First Round.

2024 Sport Advantage – Basketball

Basketball programs finished with better resumes than football teams for most SEC schools during 2024-2025.