A Jersey Guy: Could SEC pull off a CFB-CBB daily double?

The SEC may pull off a rare sweep of national championships bb and fb.

Now that we have put away the final official college football recruiting news and all of the coaching carousel moves have been made, we can focus on college basketball and March Madness, the grandest of all events (Selection Sunday is six weeks away).

With that in mind, here are few topics to ponder as the Ides of March approach.

There is no question that the Southeastern Conference is the gold standard for college football, with Georgia's SEC rematch victory against Alabama in last month's CFP national championship game in Indianapolis the latest example.

But the SEC as basketball power? 

If you just made Kentucky your top choice, most people would say that's Kentucky. Kentucky is different.

Yes, it is, but so is this new version of then SEC which has the Wildcats looking up at No. 1 (in the country) Auburn with its glittery 21-1 record.

In the latest NET rankings--the primary ratings used by the NCAA Tournament Selection Committee, the SEC--led by Auburn--has five of the top 22 teams, with Kentucky, Tennessee, LSU. and Alabama joining the Tigers as the SEC Elite.

Anyone who misjudges the talent that Auburn coach Bruce Pearl has put together, is traveling in dangerous waters.

"They don't have any weak links'' said Alabama coach Nate Oats, after watching Auburn outslug his team 100-81 this week. ""and their front court overwhelmed us.''

According to former Big East Commissioner Mike Tranghese who works on a consultant basis for the SEC and a few other college basketball ventures, Auburn has the right stuff to win a national championship.

"They have size, speed, and depth,'' said Tranghese. "In Jabari Smith, they might have the best player in the country.''
Smith, a 6-foot-10 inch freshman, leads the Tigers in scoring with a 15.6 point per game average.

If Auburn or another SEC school pulls out a national championship, it would mark the first time since 2012 that one conference has won the national championship in football and basketball, when Kentucky itn basketball and Alabama in football were passing ships in the night as national champions.

Before that in  2006 when Florida was national champions in both sports and the following year when Florida won again in basketball and LSU won in football.

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The brackets will determine many fates in the tournament, but right now, here's an Elite 8 list of schools with the best chance of winning the title.

Arizona, Auburn, Baylor Duke, Gonzaga, Kansas, Kentucky, and  Purdue, with UCLA and Ohio State on the perimeter.

For seeding purposes: Auburn  (Midwest), Baylor (South), Gonzaga (Midwest) and Purdue (East) look like the No. 1  seeds....Sentimentalists hoping that Duke makes one final Final Four run for Coach K, who is retiring after this season...Changing of power in Big East from Villanova to Marquette...One team no high seeded team wants to see in their NCAA bracket as an opponent is Rick Pitino's Iona squad.