It may be a “down” year for the Southeastern Conference in the minds of some, with this perennial powerhouse conference slipping to 4th in the RPIs behind the Big 12, the Big East and the ACC, but for five of the top teams in the SEC, their efforts this season have led them to exactly where they wanted to be: in the 2008 NCAA Tournament field of 64. The five SEC teams who received tickets to the Big Dance are Tennessee, LSU, Vanderbilt, Georgia and Auburn, and each of these teams intends to make the most of their golden opportunity in this year’s NCAA Tournament.

As expected, defending National Champs Tennessee (30-2) received a #1 seed in the Oklahoma City regional, and their first round opponent will be #16 seed Oral Roberts (19-13), who received an automatic bid as the Summit Conference champion. They will meet on Sunday, Mar. 23 at 8 p.m. CST in West Lafayette, IN, with the winner of that game facing either #8 seed Utah or #9 seed Purdue in the second round on Tuesday, Mar. 25. Unlike the past two years when their draw was noticeably more difficult, UT was left with little to complain about in this year’s seedings. The Oklahoma City region contains the #2 seed with the worst overall record (Texas A&M at 26-7), a #3 seed who has beaten both Maryland and Rutgers but has lost against several SEC teams this season (Duke, 23-9), and a #4 seed which has stumbled big-time down the stretch, losing three straight and going down in the second round of their conference tourney to a foe with only two conference wins (Oklahoma, 21-8). If the Lady Vols can’t make it to Tampa out of this region, then the sky is not blue and Dick Vitale’s hoarse rantings are not annoying.

LSU (27-5), considered by many as a strong possibility for a #1 seed, had to settle for a #2 in the New Orleans regional, but have the consolation of playing their first two games at home in Baton Rouge before moving down the road an hour or so to the Big Easy for the next two rounds, if seedings hold. Not a bad consolation for receiving a #2, and I’m sure North Carolina’s Sylvia Hatchell is scratching her head, wondering if a #1 seed in this regional is all it’s cracked up to be. LSU will face Jackson State (18-13) on Saturday, Mar. 22 at 9:30 p.m. CST, with the winner going on to face either #7 seed Marist or #10 seed DePaul. Jackson State received only their 4th ever NCAA bid (and first since 1995) by winning the Southwestern Athletic Conference tourney. Although LSU dropped a couple of tough non-conference games against Maryland and Rutgers early in the season, and another to UCONN late, the Tigers are vying for their fifth straight trip to the Final Four. Don’t count them out; 8 seniors on this squad have come up empty-handed so far, and they are hungry to win it all in their final shot at a national title.

Vanderbilt (23-8), received a #4 seed in the Spokane regional, where they will face Montana (25-6), who earned an automatic bid as Big Sky champs. They will meet on Saturday, Mar. 22 at 10 p.m. CST in “The Pit”, aka Bob King Court, at the University of New Mexico in Albuquerque. The winner of this game will have a tough second-round matchup, potentially facing either #5 seed West Virginia or #12 seed New Mexico on their home court, which is notoriously one of the toughest places to play in the nation (it’s not nicknamed “The Pit” for nothin’…). Although Vandy will theoretically already have one game under their belt on that court, the transformation “The Pit” will undergo if UNM makes it to the second round will be astounding. Vanderbilt is pleased to have received a #4 seed; after losing three senior starters from last year’s #2 seed team, the Commodores struggled early to find their identity, sitting at 9-4 on the last day of 2007. It looked to be a long year, but a funny thing happened on the way to SEC play: Vandy stepped up their defensive efforts and came crashing to the boards, and the result was a school-record run through the conference portion of their schedule. Although they looked lackluster at times in the SEC tourney, both in their quarterfinal win over Auburn and their semifinal loss to eventual tourney champ UT, look for Vandy to step it up in the postseason. It doesn’t take a rocket scientist or a Vandy grad to know what “one and done” means.

Georgia (22-9) received their 14th straight bid to the NCAA Tournament, and will be playing as a #8 seed in the New Orleans regional. Their first round opponent will be Iowa (21-10), who received an at-large bid out of the Big Ten. They will face each other on Sunday, Mar. 23 at 1:30 p.m. CST in Norfolk, VA. This will be an intriguing first round matchup, and could go either way. These are two teams who seem to be going in opposite directions: Georgia struggled late in the season, and looked uninspired in their quarterfinal loss to Kentucky at the SEC tourney, whereas Iowa is 12-3 in their last 15 games after coach Lisa Bluder ditched the triangle to run a more motion-oriented offense. The winner of this game moves on to face either #1 seed North Carolina or #16 seed Bucknell, but I’m afraid it will be Iowa who faces UNC instead of the dawg-tired Lady Dawgs.

The fifth and final SEC team to garner a Big Dance ticket is Nell Fortner’s Auburn Tigers (20-11), who snagged a #11 seed in the Greensboro regional. Frankly, knowing the NCAA selection committee focuses on the last 12 games of the season, I’m surprised the Tigers received a bid, having lost 5 of their last 12, but I hope they step up and dance like there’s no tomorrow. Having lost 2 players to injuries and several others to academic ineligibility, Auburn is not very deep, dressing only 9 players at the SEC tourney. Their first round foe will be #6 seed George Washington (25-6) who received an Atlantic 10 at-large bid after having posted key wins this season over #2 seed Texas A&M, #4 seed Virginia and #9 seed Xavier. Auburn will meet George Washington on Saturday, Mar. 22 at 1 p.m. CST with the winner facing either #3 seed Cal or #14 seed San Diego. Although Auburn’s depth and seeding looks to make this a first-round “bow out,” Auburn can take consolation in the fact that they only lost to GW by 2 earlier this season, so they could very well pull this one out.

SECWB.com wishes good luck to all five SEC teams in the 2008 NCAA Women’s Basketball Tournament.