Who Will Represent the SEC in the NCAA Tournament?

The SEC is by far the premiere conference when it comes to football, but where do they stack up in college basketball, and how many SEC teams will have a chance to compete for the sport's national championship?

Jerry Palm of CBS Sports joined Ryan Fowler on Monday night to talk about Alabama basketball and what they'll need to do to make the NCAA Tournament, but he also let us know which teams from the SEC are currently in the field of 68.

"Kentucky, Alabama [probably meant Arkansas], A&M, Ole Miss, LSU, Georgia are all in the bracket at this point. Now, four of them are in the bottom half, so you know, there's obviously work still to do for those teams."

No offense to Alabama, but I think he meant to say "Arkansas" instead of "Alabama," or we'll assume that for the time being.

With that being said, how would Alabama make it into the field of 68? Fowler asked him if the Crimson Tide was only a tournament team if they won the SEC Tournament, and Palm basically said that was the only way.

"They're going to have to play at a completely different level than they've played after this point."

Maybe the Tide will be left out of the Big Dance, but the conference is getting stronger as a whole, as is evident with the dominance of Kentucky and the level of play that Arkansas possesses, not to mention the competitiveness and athleticism that Texas A&M, Georgia, and LSU have.

"It's definitely better. Last year, you had Florida, and elite team; you had Kentucky, and eight seed, underseeded, but they did make the Final Four; and the only other team to make the tournament was Tennessee."

A Tennessee team that made a Sweet Sixteen run.

The overall play of SEC basketball is on the up-and-up, but still has quite a bit to go before catching up to the likes of the quality of the Big Ten and ACC.

Can the SEC become a top tier basketball conference without losing focus on dominating the football world? That's probably another discussion for another day.