Editing Southeastern Conference (section)

===Basketball tournament===
{{Main|SEC men's basketball tournament|}}

The ''[[SEC men's basketball tournament]]'' (also known simply as the ''[[SEC tournament]]'') is the competition that determines the SEC's automatic bid to the [[NCAA Division I Men's Basketball Championship|NCAA men's basketball tournament]]. Notably, it does not determine the SEC conference champion in men's basketball—the conference has awarded its championship to the team(s) with the best regular-season record since the 1950–51 season.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.secdigitalnetwork.com/Portals/3/SEC%20Website/menshoops/SECMBBGuide.pdf |title=Through the Years: SEC Champions |work=2012–13 SEC Men's Basketball Media Guide |publisher=Southeastern Conference |page=67 |access-date=May 16, 2013 |quote=Since 1951, when the round-robin schedule was introduced, the title has been decided by a winning percentage on the conference schedule.}}</ref> It is a single-elimination tournament and seeding is based on regular season records.

With the expansion to 14 members in 2012, the 2013 tournament was the first with a new format covering five days. The teams seeded eleven through fourteen play on the first day, with the winners advancing to play the No.{{nbsp}}5 and No.{{nbsp}}6 seeds on Thursday. The top four teams receive a "double bye" and do not play until the quarterfinals on Friday. The expansion to 16 teams in 2024 will result in two additional tournament games, but the top four teams will continue to receive "double byes" into the quarterfinals.<ref name=SixSports/>

As of the 2022–23 season, the tournament has most often been held at two venues that have each hosted twelve times. [[Louisville Gardens]] in [[Louisville, Kentucky]], served as the regular host from 1941 until the tournament was discontinued after the 1952 edition. The [[Georgia Dome]] in [[Atlanta]] first hosted the tournament in 1995 and most recently hosted in 2014. [[Bridgestone Arena]] in [[Nashville, Tennessee]], is now the regular host, with that venue hosting the tournament from 2015 through 2030, except in 2018 and 2022 (years in which it instead hosted the SEC women's basketball tournament).<ref name="Nashville 2015–2025">{{cite press release|url=http://www.secdigitalnetwork.com/NEWS/tabid/473/Article/247151/nashville-to-host-sec-basketball-tournaments.aspx |title=Nashville To Host SEC Basketball Tournaments |publisher=Southeastern Conference |date=October 15, 2013 |access-date=October 27, 2013}}</ref> Sometimes, the tournament will take place at the [[Smoothie King Center]] in [[New Orleans]], or [[Amalie Arena]] in [[Tampa, Florida]]. The 2018 tournament was held at Scottrade Center, now [[Enterprise Center]], in [[St. Louis|St. Louis, Missouri]], and the 2022 tournament was at Amalie Arena.<ref>{{cite news|url=https://www.espn.com/mens-college-basketball/story/_/id/10992358/sec-tabs-st-louis-tampa-2018-2022-tournaments |title=St. Louis, Tampa to play SEC hosts |agency=Associated Press |work=ESPN.com |date=May 27, 2014 |access-date=May 28, 2014}}</ref>

Prior to moving to the Georgia Dome, the tournament (during its modern, post-1979 era) was most often contested at the venue now known as [[Legacy Arena]] in Birmingham, Alabama, home of the SEC's headquarters and centrally located prior to the addition of Arkansas and South Carolina. Other sites to host include on-campus arenas at LSU, Tennessee, and Vanderbilt; [[Rupp Arena]] in Lexington; and the [[Orlando Arena]].