Last Year’s Transfer Portal Explains Much Of ACC/SEC Hoops Reversal
By David Glenn
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 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 reached truly unprecedented proportions.
(photo via Todd Melet)
In the leagues’ 34 head-to-head matchups, the SEC’s regular-season 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) this year, but its performance against the SEC was nothing short of embarrassing.
The 2025 NCAA Tournament has only underlined this theme, although Duke still has a chance to add an impactful exclamation point to this conversation on the ACC’s behalf. If the Blue Devils get past Houston in the Final Four on Saturday, they will face an SEC opponent — either Auburn or Florida — in the national championship game on Monday.
Regardless of what occurs in the national semifinals, in a more general sense, the SEC has been surging in men’s basketball, just as the ACC has been sagging in its signature sport.
The 16-team SEC earned an astounding 14 NCAA Tournament bids this season, crushing the previous record of 11, set by the Big East in 2011. The ACC has the next-best number in that regard, having received nine bids in both 2017 and 2018.
The SEC then advanced seven of its 14 Big Dance participants to this year’s Sweet 16, setting another all-time record. That astounding achievement came at the direct expense of the ACC, which held the previous mark, having sent six squads (Duke, Miami, Notre Dame, Syracuse, UNC, Virginia) to the Sweet 16 in 2016.
Now the SEC is assured of having one team in this year’s national championship game, breaking what had been a 10-year drought for the league in that regard. Meanwhile, if the Tigers or Gators cut down the nets on Monday night, it will mark the SEC’s first NCAA title since 2012 (Kentucky).
Although Duke has carried its own conference flag with distinction all season, the ACC had by far its lowest NCAA Tournament participation rate (only four of 18 teams; 22 percent) of the modern era, going all the way back to the event’s expansion to 64 teams in 1985. When the Blue Devils were the league’s only team still standing in the Round of 32, that marked another unprecedented low during the same 40-year stretch.
So how did this happen?
Well, for starters, money always 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 has lost (among many other quality head coaches) four Hall of Famers: Jim Boeheim (Syracuse), Mike Krzyzewski (Duke), Rick Pitino (Louisville) and Roy Williams (UNC).
Meanwhile, more specific to the 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 did a much better job than the ACC of throwing its weight around on the transfer circuit last year.
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, 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 was Wake Forest transfer Andrew Carr, who had been a two-year starter for the Demon Deacons. One of the starting guards for #4 seed Texas A&M was SMU transfer Zhuric Phelps, who had been a two-year starter and an all-league player for the Mustangs in their final season as a member of the American Athletic Conference. One of the starting forwards for #6 seed Missouri was Duke transfer Mark Mitchell, who had been a two-year starter for the Blue Devils.
At #6 seed Ole Miss, which eliminated UNC from this year’s NCAA Tournament, the best player was senior guard Sean Pedulla, who had been a two-year starter at Virginia Tech. At #8 seed Mississippi State, two of the team’s five 2024-25 starters came via the ACC, from last year’s transfer portal: Boston College guard Claudell Harris Jr. and Miami center Michael Nwoko.
It would be one thing if the ACC 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 it wasn’t a major factor last spring and summer, when coaches were finalizing their 2024-25 rosters.
Regardless of the details, the SEC is dominating the ACC in men’s basketball right now — both on the court and in the transfer portal, and those two developments are intimately related.
It’s up to the ACC to make sure a similar level of portal domination doesn’t happen again this year. Otherwise, nobody should be surprised if this ACC/SEC men’s basketball reversal continues.
2024 ACC-to-SEC 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 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 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
David Glenn (DavidGlennShow.com, @DavidGlennShow) is an award-winning author, broadcaster, editor, entrepreneur, publisher, speaker, writer and university lecturer (now at UNC Wilmington) who has covered sports in North Carolina since 1987.
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