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The SEC Conference Championship stretches from March 10-14, with all games at the Bridgestone Arena on Broadway in Nashville, Tennessee. The tournament will include 13 teams, as Auburn is serving an NCAA penalty and will not participate in the postseason. The bracket will be single-elimination games with no reseeding.
All games will be on an ESPN platform, bouncing between the SEC Network in the early rounds, and major ESPN for one quarterfinal session, and all of the semifinals and final.
The Alabama Crimson Tide enter as the No. 1 seed and the regular-season champion. The Tide are 21-6 this season, as Jahvon Quinerly, Herbert Jones and Jaden Shackelford have combined to be one of the most dynamic trios in all of college basketball. It will be unusual to see Kentucky playing before the quarterfinals begin, as the top end of this tournament will be playing more for seeding in the NCAA Tournament than to stay off the bubble.
Wednesday, March 10
Game 1: No. 13 Vanderbilt 79-68 over No. 12 Texas A&M
Thursday, March 11
Game 2: No. 9 Mississippi State 74-73 over No. 8 Kentucky
Game 3: No. 5 Florida 69-63 over No. 13 Vanderbilt
Game 4: No. 7 Missouri 73-70 over No. 10 Georgia
Game 5: No. 6 Ole Miss 76-59 over No. 11 South Carolina
Friday, March 12 Quarterfinals
Game 6: No. 1 Alabama 85-48 over No. 9 Mississippi State
Game 7: No. 4 Tennessee 78-66 over No. 5 Florida
Game 8: No. 2 Arkansas 70-64 over No. 7 Missouri
Game 9: No. 3 LSU 76-73 over No. 6 Ole Miss
Saturday, March 13 Semifinals
Game 10: No. 1 Alabama 73-68 over No. 4 Tennessee
Game 11: No. 3 LSU 78-71 over No. 2 Arkansas
Sunday, March 14 Final
Game 12: No. 1 Alabama 80-79 over No. 3 LSU
The Crimson Tide are SEC Champions for the first time since 1991, and Nate Oats has likely put his team on the No. 2 seed line for the NCAA Tournament. Jaden Shackelford and the Tide will be a tough out for anyone in Indianapolis, where they should be seeded to finish the tournament at Lucas Oil Stadium by making the Elite Eight.