SEC Super Tuesday Helps Tennessee's Bye Chances

The SEC Tournament is right around the corner, and Tuesday helped the Tennessee Volunteers' chances of opening on Friday.

Tennessee didn't play on Tuesday, but their odds of playing on Friday to open the SEC Tournament improved significantly. While the Vols prepared for their trip to Nashville, Texas A&M held serve at home against Auburn, and Arkansas beat Kentucky in Lexington. With both losers of those games a game below Tennessee in the standings coming into today, it would take a pretty monumental collapse for Tennessee to play Thursday in the SEC Tournament.

While Tennessee does have a tough schedule ahead of them, KenPom has the Vols as favorites in every remaining game in the regular season. Four of their remaining games (vs. Alabama, at Kentucky, at Texas A&M, and at Auburn) are projected to be within four points. However, if Tennessee drops three of those games, 13-5 should be plenty good enough to grab a double bye considering Kentucky, Auburn, and Florida already have four losses.

While the chances of Tennessee dropping below the four seed are slim, catching Alabama is still a tall task. KenPom currently projects Tennessee to finish 14-4 in the league, while they have Alabama at 18-2. Tennessee will, in all likelihood, be favored when the Tide comes to Knoxville in a week but will go on the road for two games after. Even with a win to pull within a game or tie the Tide, it's probably unlikely that the Vols can win both games on the road trip.

Regarding matchups, it's probably too early to tell who Tennessee could draw in the SEC Tournament, but the two-seed is the most likely outcome for the Vols. Texas A&M still has a half-game lead for that two spot, but their schedule gets a little more difficult coming up. It also certainly helps that the Aggies avoided trips to Tuscaloosa and Knoxville this season. For now, as long as Tennessee avoids a disaster loss, they are in a good spot for the SEC Tournament.

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