Men’s basketball SEC Power Rankings for Jan. 22: Vols lose ground

The Tennessee Volunteers dropped a couple of spots in our All for Tennessee men’s basketball SEC Power Rankings for Monday, Jan. 22, 2018.

It was a crazy week of basketball. Now, our SEC Power Rankings are a complete cluster, and the depth and talent of the conference are really starting to show. As a result, every spot is now up for debate this week.

Normally, our SEC Power Rankings have a clear set of tiers or at least a clear No. 1 or No. 14. That’s not the case this week. There seems to be very little distance between every position, and a series of upsets threw everything for a loop.

There are 14 teams in the conference, and 13 are in the Top 100 of the RPI. If the season ended today, eight teams would 100 percent be in the NCAA Tournament. Another two would be on the bubble and one more would be just off the bubble.

So yes, 11 teams right now have a legitimate shot at the Big Dance, and another two could play their way on. That’s insane and shows how deep this conference runs.

This week, the SEC-Big 12 challenge takes place, giving lots of teams in the league a chance at a non-conference match-up. And that will go even further when it comes to NCAA Tournament implications.

As for Tennessee basketball, the Vols made things as difficult as anybody with their split last week. But with so many other teams splitting, there were dramatic jumps all across the conference.

That makes this extremely hard to do. But we tried our best, so let’s take a look at what we did. Here are our men’s basketball SEC Power Rankings for Monday, Jan. 22.