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Where does Alabama basketball rank historically among SEC schools?
- Story byThe Tuscaloosa News
- Where does Alabama basketball rank historically among SEC schools?
Where does Alabama basketball rank in SEC history? Or, more specifically, how does it stack up against all schools currently in the SEC?
The Crimson Tide is coming off its first Final Four in the history of the men's program last season and riding a wave of success under coach Nate Oats. But while that run and both regular-season and tournament SEC championships in 2021 and '23 have Alabama among the league's elite programs today, ranking it against the other 15 conference programs across history is a difficult task.
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Where does the SEC's most historically elite football school rank in basketball as Oats works to gain recognition for Alabama as a basketball school?
To determine where the Crimson Tide stands in SEC history, The Tuscaloosa News created a points system to recognize accomplishments for each member school. The ranking criteria includes not only SEC success but also league titles in other conferences to fairly assess league newcomers Oklahoma and Texas, as well schools like Arkansas and Missouri that haven't been around the SEC as long as Alabama, Auburn , Kentucky, Tennessee and other traditional conference members.
The ratings give equal weight to Arkansas' history in the Southwest Conference and both Oklahoma and Texas in the Big 12 and all other previous conference affiliations in each program's basketball history.
The ranking was calculated based on a points system using the following criteria: NCAA championships (10 points), Final Four appearances (5), regular-season SEC championships (2), other conference regular-season championships (2), SEC tournament championships (2), other conference tournament championships (2), NCAA Tournament appearances (2), NCAA Tournament wins (2), NIT championships (5), NIT wins (1), conference players of the year (1), consensus All-Americans (1), NBA and ABA draftees (1) and top-25 poll rankings at the end of a season (2).
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Without the Sooners and the Longhorns, Alabama landed at fourth in the league historically with 305 points. With Oklahoma and Texas added, the Crimson Tide ranks sixth. Eight-time national champion Kentucky leads the SEC with an overwhelming 1,182 points, nearly three times as many as the next-highest total.
Following behind the Wildcats were Arkansas (419), Oklahoma (393), Texas (373), Florida (321), Alabama (305), Tennessee (303), LSU (292), Missouri (280), Vanderbilt (203), Texas A&M (199), South Carolina (188), Auburn (169), Mississippi State (163), Georgia (124) and Ole Miss (78).
Since its first season in 1912, Alabama has amassed a program resume that includes nine regular-season SEC championships, eight SEC Tournament titles and regular-season and tourney championships as a member of the Southern Conference, with UA going 20-0 in the 1929-30 season under Hank Crisp.
Through 24 NCAA Tournament appearances and 16 NIT invites, Alabama has picked up 29 and 24 wins, respectively. In the polls, UA has finished the season ranked seven times in the coaches poll, dating back to the 1991-92 season, and 18 times in the Associated Press poll, which began in the 1948-49 season.
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The Crimson Tide program has also produced seven conference players of the year, with three consensus All-Americans in Leon Douglas, Brandon Miller and current player Mark Sears . Forty-nine UA players have been drafted by the NBA, plus five to the ABA before it merged with the NBA in 1976.
Mar 1, 2023; Tuscaloosa, AL, USA; Alabama head coach Nate Oats holds up the net after his daughter cut it down at Coleman Coliseum. Alabama defeated Auburn 90-85 in overtime to claim the regular season SEC Championship.
After hanging a hundred on once-undefeated Oklahoma in the 2025 conference opener, Oats said the league is "ridiculously successful." Long before its members tipped off a historic season of non-conference play, that caliber has been building into a record year for the SEC.
Only a Final Four trip that Tennessee has yet to make nudged Alabama ahead of the Volunteers.
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Football championships galore have often overshadowed the SEC's chances of being known as a basketball conference. In a season where that status is undeniable, here's how the teams of the SEC stacked up historically heading into the 2024-25 season.
Where does Alabama basketball rank historically in the SEC?
The table below reflects historic basketball accomplishments of each current SEC school, followed by the points total from The Tuscaloosa News' ranking system. Example: Alabama has one Final Four appearance worth five points, while Arkansas has six for 30 points; Auburn has five regular-season championships for 10 points, while Alabama has 10 worth 20 points, and so forth.
Here's how SEC member schools finished in order of total points in the ranking system for comparing historic basketball success:
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Emilee Smarr covers Alabama basketball and Crimson Tide athletics for the Tuscaloosa News. She can be reached via email at esmarr@gannett.com.
This article originally appeared on The Tuscaloosa News: Alabama basketball: Ranking Tide among SEC programs in league history
