For decades, while the Southeastern Conference often set the standard in college football, the Atlantic Coast Conference served that function in men’s basketball.

No more.

Starting with the 2020-21 season, according to a wide variety of analytics, the SEC — still the trend-setter on the gridiron, of course — also typically has been rated as at least slightly better than the ACC in men’s basketball.

This season, the growing gap between the 93-year-old SEC and the 72-year-old ACC on the hardcourt has reached truly unprecedented proportions.

In the leagues’ 34 head-to-head matchups during the regular season, the SEC’s record against the ACC was an astounding 30-4. The ACC also struggled against the Big 12 (3-8), Big East (2-5) and Big Ten (8-9), but its performance against the SEC was nothing short of embarrassing.Now the NCAA Tournament is putting those same themes in an even brighter spotlight.

Whereas the ACC has tied its modern-era low with only one team (Duke) in the Sweet 16, the SEC has set the all-time record for any conference with seven: Alabama, Arkansas, Auburn, Florida, Kentucky, Ole Miss and Tennessee.

How did this happen?

Well, for starters, money matters.

For most of the 1980s, 1990s and even early 2000s, the ACC often ranked as the most lucrative conference (in terms of its annual per-school payout) in all of college sports. Thanks mainly to football-related television money, the SEC and Big Ten gradually have become the runaway leaders in that regard, well above the ACC and every other league.

There’s also no doubt that the ACC is feeling a “brain-drain” effect in its basketball coaching ranks, which over the last decade have lost (among many other quality head coaches) four Hall of Famers: Jim Boeheim (Syracuse), Mike Krzyzewski (Duke), Rick Pitino (Louisville) and Roy Williams (UNC). Collectively, they led their teams to 11 national championships.

Meanwhile, more specific to the ongoing 2024-25 season, it’s crystal-clear that — in an era when signees from the NCAA transfer portal far outnumber signees from the high school ranks — the SEC has done a much better job than the ACC of throwing its weight around on the transfer circuit.

Looking only at 2024 transfer portal transactions involving both the ACC and the SEC (and players headed in either direction; please see the complete list below), it’s easy to see that the SEC cannibalized the ACC by signing a bunch of its high-quality players, including a handful of multi-year starters, whereas ACC teams collectively landed only a couple impact players from the SEC.

One of the starting guards for #1 seed Auburn, for example, is Georgia Tech transfer Miles Kelly, who was a two-year starter for the Yellow Jackets. One of the starting forwards for #3 seed Kentucky is Wake Forest transfer Andrew Carr, who was a two-year starter for the Demon Deacons. The best player for #6 seed Ole Miss, senior guard Sean Pedulla, was a two-year starter at Virginia Tech.

On Selection Sunday this year, the 16-member SEC received an incredible 14 bids to the Big Dance. That was by far the highest number of bids and the highest participation rate (87.5 percent) for any conference in the history of the event.

The ACC, meanwhile, earned only four NCAA Tournament bids, and three of those teams — Clemson, Louisville and UNC — didn’t survive the event’s opening week.

It would be one thing if the ACC also pillaged the SEC for many of its better players in last year’s portal, but that definitely wasn’t the case. Only two 2024 SEC-to-ACC transfers were even part-time starters for their new school: UNC forward Ven-Allen Lubin (Vanderbilt) and Georgia Tech guard Javian McCollum (Oklahoma).

The “follow-the-money” concept applies here, too, of course. The amount of Name-Image-Likeness money most players receive is not public information, but it would be naive to think that’s not the #1 factor in play here.

Regardless of the details behind the scenes, the SEC has absolutely dominated the ACC in men’s basketball this season — both on the court and in the transfer portal — and those two developments are definitely related.

2024 ACC-to-SEC Basketball Transfers

Auburn F Ja’Heim Hudson (Jr./SMU) — backup
Auburn G Miles Kelly* (Jr./Georgia Tech) — starter
Georgia F RJ Godfrey (So./Clemson) — starter
Kentucky F Andrew Carr* (Sr./Wake Forest) — starter
Mississippi PG Sean Pedulla* (Jr./Virginia Tech) — starter
Mississippi State G Claudell Harris Jr.* (Jr./Boston College) — starter
Mississippi State C Michael Nwoko (Fr./Miami) — starter
Missouri F Mark Mitchell* (So./Duke) — starter
Texas A&M G Zhuric Phelps* (Jr./SMU) — starter
Texas Tech C Federiko Federiko* (Jr./Pitt) — backup
Vanderbilt G MJ Collins* (So./Virginia Tech) — backup
Vanderbilt G Alex Hemenway (Sr./Clemson) — (injured/medical)
Vanderbilt F Devin McGlockton* (So./Boston College) — starter
Vanderbilt F Tyler Nickel (So./Virginia Tech) — starter

2024 SEC-to-ACC Basketball Transfers

Cal C Lee Dort (Fr./Vanderbilt) — backup
Georgia Tech PG Javian McCollum* (Jr./Oklahoma) — part-time starter
Louisville C Frank Anselem-Ibe (Jr./Georgia) — backup
North Carolina F Ven-Allen Lubin* (So./Vanderbilt) — part-time starter
Syracuse PG Chance Westry (r-Fr./Auburn) — (injured/medical)
Virginia C Carter Lang (Fr./Vanderbilt) — backup
Wake Forest G Davin Cosby (Fr./Alabama) — backup

*—starter in 2023-24 for previous school