There's no question that football is king in the SEC.
The gridiron has long outshined the hardwood in the SEC, and the conference's recently ended run of football championships did little to change a perception that the SEC is a football conference.
But early results from conference play, such as the struggles of No. 1 Kentucky, have led Auburn head coach Bruce Pearl to point out improvements in the SEC's basketball performances.
"(Kentucky's performance) really speaks to the overall strength of the conference," Pearl said. "The conference, to me, looks stronger top to bottom than any time I have been in this league."
The improvements are beginning to show in the math of college basketball as well.
The SEC currently has 12 teams with RPIs inside of 100, with Pearl's Tigers sitting at 87 as of Jan. 12.
Arkansas and Alabama, teams that have historically struggled to find wins on the road, found early conference road wins.
With many of the numbers pointing to a resurgent season for the SEC, Pearl said he hopes people notice that teams are beginning to pass the eye test.
"The eye test is Kentucky beating everybody by 40, and then they go to overtime against Texas A&M and Ole Miss," Pearl said. "Call it what you want. Kentucky isn't point shaving, they're trying to dominate opponents, and they couldn't dominate two middle of the league SEC teams."
Senior point guard KC Ross-Miller, who transferred to Auburn after three seasons at the Western Athletic Conference's New Mexico State, said the conference has been a step up in competition.
"I knew it was a tough conference from the start," Ross-Miller said. "I'm aware of it. I'm excited about playing the teams we got coming forward, and I'm just looking for the challenge."
Pearl said the most important aspect of changing national perception of the conference would be in out of conference scheduling, an area the league's coaches focused on in the offseason.
Games against traditional powers such as Kansas, North Carolina and UCLA highlighted a number of those changes.
With a matchup against Florida on the horizon, Pearl said that Gators' head coach Billy Donovan will likely appreciate the scheduling changes most, since his Gators, who haven't lost a regular season conference game since the 2012-2013 season, have often relied on beating non-conference opponents to boost seeding.
"I think Billy (Donovan) has to be really excited and pleased that the conference went out and did the work that we did with the scheduling and with some of the wins, but mostly with out scheduling," Pearl said. "Now he can make the tournament by beating SEC teams."
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