Men’s basketball SEC Power Rankings for Jan. 8: Vols in top half

Tennessee is in the top half of our men’s basketball SEC Power Rankings for Jan. 8. See how highly ranked the Volunteers are.

On the day of the last game of the college football season, we bring college basketball season into full swing. And that comes with our first round of SEC Power Rankings for the year following a full week of conference play for everybody in the league.

We may just be two or three games in with every team. But it’s pretty clear that the conference is going to be more competitive than it ever has been before.

Right now, there are 12 teams with a legitimate shot to make the NCAA Tournament. Meanwhile, another has every right to think it has a shot. And given what has already happened in league play, don’t count out the final team in this bunch.

Everything has been crazy since the tipoff of SEC play. The only winless team in the conference is a team almost all analysts had pegged in the top three of the conference before it began.

As we get set to break down these SEC Power Rankings, there are numerous factors into how we break down the teams. Yes, like football, we put more emphasis on the more recent games. We also factor in schedule strength and head to head along with record. And margin of victory along with where teams played also matter.

All of that together still made this very difficult. There is just so much parity in the conference with lots of good teams that nobody really stands out.

Currently, there is just a clear-cut top two and, surprisingly, a clear-cut bottom three. But how that bottom three is ordered can still be debated.

So let’s get started with this deep league. These are our first men’s basketball SEC Power Rankings for the 2017-2018 season.