According to Kenpom, the SEC is still the best conference from a metrics standpoint, but not as commanding as last year. It doesn't seem like it would be the best conference (from the "eye" test, I would slightly favor the Big 10) probably because, as of now, there doesn't seem to be any dominant-type teams like last year. Florida, Bama, Auburn, and Tennessee were all in Kenpom's top 6 last year; the highest rated Kenpom SEC team currently is Vandy at #7 and the next one is Florida at #12. It appears the really good teams have somewhat "come back to the pack". The other factor is that even the bad teams in the SEC aren't exactly gawd-awful in terms of their metrics.....USCe is #90 and Mississippi State is #77. Every other SEC team is top 57.