The best two weekends of the year in sport are officially upon us with the release of the bracket for the NCAA Tournament on Sunday evening.
With the Yellowhammer State suddenly turning into the basketball capital of the entire nation and the SEC becoming the best conference in the sport, it was no surprise to see a litany of teams fans from around the South are familiar with featured heavily within the bracket.
The SEC shattered the record for most bids for a conference with a staggering 14 of the 16 teams making the field, breaking a 2011 mark from the Big East who got 11 teams in.
Despite losing on Saturday to Tennessee in the SEC Tournament, the Auburn Tigers still received the No. 1 overall seed in the field. They will face off against the winner of Alabama State and Saint Francis in their first round game in Lexington at 1:50 p.m. CST.
If Auburn were to win, they would face the winner of Creighton against Louisville with a trip to the Sweet Sixteen on the line in Atlanta for the South Region. The No. 2 seed in their region is the Michigan State Spartans and other potential tough outs include No. 3 seed Iowa State, No. 4 seed Texas A&M, and No. 5 seed Michigan
The Alabama Crimson Tide, who were defeated by Florida on Saturday in Nashville, secured a No. 2 seed in the East Region, the upper right quadrant of the bracket. The Tide take on Robert Morris on Friday afternoon in Cleveland at 11:40 a.m. CST and would face the winner of St. Mary’s against Vanderbilt should they advance.
If Alabama advances to the Sweet Sixteen, they would be headed up North to Newark. In terms of challenging teams within their region, the Tide are looking at No. 1 seed Duke, No. 3 seed Wisconsin, No. 4 seed Arizona, and No. 5 seed Oregon.
It all gets started officially on Thursday afternoon as fans settle in for March Madness in what promises to be one of the most exciting tournaments we have seen in some time.
