Prestige Rankings: The Best SEC Men’s Basketball Programs

Mar 15, 2015; Nashville, TN, USA; Kentucky Wildcats players celebrate after a win in the SEC Conference Championship game against the Arkansas Razorbacks at Bridgestone Arena. Kentucky won 78-63. Mandatory Credit: Christopher Hanewinckel-USA TODAY Sports

Season-by-season, each team is ranked based on their game-by-game performance and their overall body of work. But instead of making a ranking system that will change after just one season, it’s time to rank teams by their program’s history and all their accomplishments over decades of work.

All For Tennessee presents to you the Prestige Rankings. It operates like Power Rankings, only these don’t change on a week-by-week basis. These rankings place teams in the SEC in order of their program history and success over time.

Since it’s March Madness, the first of these will rank men’s basketball programs in the SEC based on NCAA and SEC Tournament performances. Deep NCAA Tournament runs and conference championships define greatness in men’s basketball, and the SEC is no exception.

The SEC isn’t the most storied conference overall in terms of postseason play, but collegiate basketball is a tournament sport that is defined by postseason success, so that is the measuring stick all the teams will be held to.

Here are where all 14 SEC teams rank historically in the conference based on their NCAA and SEC Tournament histories.

Note: All Sweet Sixteens, Elite Eights, Final Fours, and National Championship appearances and titles are tabulated after the NCAA Tournament expanded to 64 teams in 1985. SEC Tournament championships are only counted after the tournament resumed in 1979. NCAA Tournament appearances have been updated since the 2015 field was announced.