Inside a Defining Week for SEC and ACC Women’s Hoops
The numbers don’t lie: the SEC didn’t just win the women’s ACC/SEC Challenge, it ran the table in emphatic fashion, taking 13 of 16 matchups and doing it by an average margin north of 13 points. Top 25 showdowns told the story; Texas handled North Carolina, LSU overwhelmed Duke, and South Carolina survived a thriller at Louisville, yet still walked out of the week looking every bit like a title contender. While the SEC’s power brands took care of business, ACC stalwarts like NC State, Miami, and Virginia absorbed double-digit losses or let late-game chances slip away, reinforcing the perception of an early-season gap. In the NET and AP snapshots that followed, the disparity was just as stark; only North Carolina and Louisville sat in the NET top 30 from the ACC, compared with nine SEC teams. For a November/December event, this felt less like a tune-up and more like a loud statement about who owns the sport’s middle and upper tiers right now.
Under the Hood: Why the SEC Looks Deeper Than the ACC
From an analytics standpoint, the gap is built on two-way dominance. South Carolina is playing like a juggernaut again, averaging around 89–90 points per game while holding opponents in the low-50s, good for a scoring margin above +35 through the early schedule. Texas, now fully embedded in the SEC, has climbed to the top of multiple national power rankings after back-to-back neutral court wins over UCLA and South Carolina, giving the league a second bona fide first contender seed profile. LSU leads Division I in scoring at roughly 110 points per game, continuing Kim Mulkey’s trend of fielding the country’s most explosive offense. The ACC’s best metrics come from Louisville and North Carolina, both carrying scoring margins above +20, but the rest of the league has been far wobblier; Duke sits near .500, NC State has already taken a bad loss, and multiple programs have been upset at home. For me, that’s the real story: at the very top, the ACC can still trade punches, but the SEC’s teams are simply more trustworthy week to week.
Star Power Check: Who’s Driving Each Conference’s Ceiling?
What makes the SEC especially terrifying is that its depth is paired with elite, box-office talent. Florida guard Liv McGill is near the top of the national scoring chart at 27.3 points per game, while Vanderbilt’s Mikayla Blakes isn’t far behind at 25.7, giving the league multiple perimeter engines who can flip a game in a three-minute stretch. South Carolina’s balanced attack features multiple double-figure scorers and a frontcourt that’s shooting over 50 percent from the field, allowing Dawn Staley to overwhelm opponents with length and pace rather than a single ball-dominant star. The ACC counters with Hannah Hidalgo, whose 25.9 points per game and high-usage playmaking keep Notre Dame in every game, and Louisville’s guard-heavy attack that’s fueling an 82.0 points per game offense and a +24.7-scoring margin. Add in Syracuse’s emerging guards and Virginia Tech’s shooting, and there’s still real upset equity if ACC teams get hot from three in March. On most nights, the SEC’s combination of size, depth, and star scoring simply travels better, especially when whistles tighten and possessions slow down.
Looking Ahead: My Dream Brackets for 2025–26
So, what does all this mean when we fast-forward to conference tournaments and the NCAA bracket? If the current trajectory holds, my dream SEC Tournament final is Texas vs. South Carolina, with LSU looming as the chaos agent that could knock either out with one of those 100-plus point avalanches. On the ACC side, I’m hoping for a Louisville vs. North Carolina title game, with Notre Dame as the wildcard; if Hidalgo stays healthy and gets enough help, the Irish can absolutely steal that week in Greensboro. In the NCAA tournament, I’d love to see an Elite Eight that pits Texas, South Carolina, and LSU against an ACC trio of Louisville, North Carolina, and Notre Dame, a true test of the SEC’s depth against the ACC’s best versions of themselves. If the challenge is any indication, the SEC should be favored to put multiple teams in the Final Four, but women’s basketball is deep enough now that a hot-shooting ACC team can still rewrite the bracket in a weekend. Ultimately, the 13–3 beatdown didn’t end the SEC vs. ACC debate; it just raised the stakes for what those March matchups could mean for conference pride and long-term perception.
