Tennessee basketball: Vols losing title ironically proves SEC’s incompetence AND integrity

Tennessee basketball did not win the Southeastern Conference regular season championship. But the Volunteers losing it to the LSU Tigers is ironic.

On paper, it’s the ugliest look for the SEC. Tennessee basketball joins the Kentucky Wildcats in falling one game short of the LSU Tigers for the SEC regular season title. Both of them lost to LSU on incredibly controversial calls.

Then the Vols lost another game at the Auburn Tigers Saturday, ending their chance to share the title, thanks in large part to another incredibly controversial call. To make matters worse, the controversy surrounding Tennessee’s loss to LSU involved a documented LSU fan refereeing the game and calling a significant number of fouls in favor of LSU.

And to make matters worse than all of that, the Tigers could end up having to forfeit the regular season SEC Championship because of the Will Wade controversy. That will be the case if it’s found out that Javonte Smart was ineligible to play all year. At that point, because Tennessee couldn’t get the same record to share the title, it would be left vacant.

All of this proves two things: The SEC is incompetent, but it also has integrity. I can’t believe anybody would say that about the SEC. They seem like a league that would be the opposite: highly corrupt but very competent.

Think of everything that happened, though. The SEC has no agenda for LSU to win the regular season title. There was already suspicion surrounding Wade and Smart. Do you think they would orchestrate a conspiracy with those controversial calls to give the Tigers the title? Of course not!

So the controversial calls that were all blatant mistakes simply had to do with inept officiating. It was also a major oversight by the league to allow an LSU fan to referee an LSU game. How could somebody miss that? Simply put, incompetence ran rampant.

At the same time, the league’s honesty was evidence of its incompetence. If they were corrupt, they would have done everything possible to make sure Tennessee basketball beat Auburn on Saturday. After all, they wanted to set up a situation where if LSU did have to vacate their title, the Vols could still be the champs.

Now, though, if LSU vacates it, this year’s regular season title is vacant. And it could largely be due to a very controversial call that went against the Vols on Saturday. We’re talking, of course, about a blatant basket interference tip-in by Auburn on a three-point shot in which the ref didn’t just not call basket interference but also awarded the three to the Tigers.

Auburn shot 8 more free throws than Tennessee basketball in Saturday’s game. Clearly, the league had no conspiracy to make sure the Vols won or at least try to skew calls in their favor. And, in hilarious fashion, that proves their honesty.

How do you think the NBA, or any other league for that matter, wold have handled such a situation? Heck, dating back to January, when LSU became a threat, they would have demanded calls to go against the Tigers as much as possible given the suspicions behind their recruiting methods. The biggest thing they would want to do is railroad that team.

Instead, they went through the motions, so much so that they didn’t even pay attention to the fact that an LSU fan called an LSU game that ended up deciding the SEC title. Simply put, excessive oversight but a level of honesty has now put the SEC in a terrible situation.

Tennessee basketball’s loss to LSU was the oversight, and allowing incompetent officials to miss the Kentucky tip-in against the Tigers along with the basket interference with Auburn were secondary oversights. Not conspiring against LSU, though, showed a level of honesty. So now, those two things will likely result in this year’s title being vacated. And that’s insane.