Bye-bye discontent

Less than a year after the 12 Southeastern Conference men's basketball coaches briefly discussed reseeding their conference tournament, the subject could be debated again and with stronger support.

The SEC is the only major conference with divisions during the regular season, and each division's top two teams receive first-round byes in the league tournament. The reseeding topic was introduced at the SEC spring meetings last year after the East Division trio of Kentucky (14-2), Vanderbilt (12-4) and Tennessee (11-5) had superior league records to top West finishers Mississippi State (9-7) and Ole Miss (9-7).

Entering the final weekend of this season, there is the potential of the East having three to five teams with a better league record than the West runner-up for a fourth time in five years.

"I do think it should reward the teams with the best records," Vanderbilt coach Kevin Stallings said. "I think that would be more fair from a seeding standpoint to do it that way."

The SEC implemented two divisions when it became a 12-member collection before the 1991-92 season. Arkansas, Auburn, Alabama, Mississippi State and LSU won outright league titles during the first 15 years of the format, but the West took its first hit in 2007 when Mississippi State and Ole Miss finished 8-8 in league play while four East teams had winning records.

Florida, Kentucky, Tennessee and Vanderbilt went 24-0 against West teams last year, and the East holds a 24-10 edge in head-to-head matchups this season.

SEC associate commissioner Charles Bloom said the reseeding issue was brought up as soon as last year's league tournament was over, but it had little momentum when the spring meetings commenced in Destin, Fla.

"I don't think anybody was prepared to move forward with any changes," Alabama coach Anthony Grant said. "As a group, we'll get together this summer and maybe try to figure out what's best for the league going forward. I'm open to discussing changes."

One option is giving byes to the division champions and the two teams with the next best records regardless of division. Another is simply seeding the tournament from top to bottom based on records.

Georgia's Mark Fox said he would vote for either change, and Kentucky's John Calipari apparently will go with the flow.

"I can't say much because we're 3-3 against the West," Calipari said. "Over a period of time it all plays out, but I would go with what everybody thinks. I would even go if they said, 'Let's not even play the SEC tournament.' I'd be fine with that."

The league isn't about to consider that option, but it sounds as if the seeding process soon will be a hotter topic than it was last spring.

"We had some discussion about a number of things last year in our meetings, and it didn't seem to generate a whole lot of traction," Stallings said. "I could see this aspect of it maybe gaining a little more."

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