The SEC, following a landmark basketball season with 14 NCAA tournament bids, is exploring the impact of the COVID-19 eligibility rules on the 2025-26 season. New Texas coach Sean Miller highlighted a significant decrease in veteran players available due to the absence of the extra year granted during the COVID pandemic. He expressed concerns that this lack of experienced players might hinder the SEC's performance going forward, potentially affecting its ability to maintain high tournament representation. The overall composition of teams will likely shift, lacking the depth brought by older athletes who previously contributed greatly to success.
One thing that's definitely going to change, and I don't think it's talked a lot about in basketball, is the no COVID year. In our case, we had a number of players in my three years at Xavier that were exercising their fifth year. It's a year that doesn't exist right now.
I think just that alone, taking that one layer of talent, where you can convince an all-SEC player to return for a fifth year, and now that that's not in play. I don't think our league will remain as old.
Even in the Final Four, when you looked hard closely at Auburn and Florida, two remarkable rosters, part of their greatness was that they had this gift of a blend of talent, but their older players, they were a big part of their success.
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