ESPN’s Karl Ravech did the math and discovered that when two SEC basketball teams face off, one emerges victorious while the other does not. A facetious narrative has arisen on social media recently, suggesting the SEC has only been .500 since the start of conference play, with Ravech unintentionally echoing this sentiment during Tuesday night’s broadcast of Alabama’s win over Texas.
Karl Ravech…oh no
“Since January 4, into Tuesday, the SEC teams are 82-82…there’s no dominant group of teams” pic.twitter.com/TEn1QzPs1A
— Awful Announcing (@awfulannouncing) February 12, 2025
During the broadcast, Ravech acknowledged the SEC’s strong performance in non-conference play, stating, “They were 185-23. Since January 4, into Tuesday, the SEC teams are 82-82. There’s been no ability to pull away; there’s no dominant group of teams.” While Ravech’s statistics are technically accurate, he may have overlooked that SEC teams have a .500 record due to the nature of their competition against one another.
Currently, the SEC record stands at 87-87 following Tuesday’s games and will reach 90-90 on Wednesday, as each matchup results in one winner and one loser. This .500 record is consistent across all conferences and reflects the inherent nature of inter-conference play.
The narrative gained traction last month when the social media account @pickle07 sarcastically posted about the SEC’s 54-54 record since January 4th. Rhode Island men’s basketball coach Archie Miller also fell for this narrative, referencing the 54-54 record in a press conference.
Miller didn’t intend to troll when he mentioned this record, nor did Ravech seem to do so. Ravech aimed to highlight the leveling off of the SEC’s performance since conference games began, a point he made accurately, even if he didn’t fully grasp the underlying reason.
