Texas’ Sean Miller: Expired COVID year to hurt veteran depth

DESTIN, Fla. — In the wake of a historic men’s basketball season that saw the conference land a record 14 teams in the NCAA tournament and Florida win the national championship, the SEC is looking to repeat history.

One interesting headwind for the SEC and other top conferences for 2025-26 was mentioned at the league meetings this week, and it’s a looming factor hovering over the next men’s basketball season.

When asked about the SEC’s quest to replicate history, first-year Texas coach Sean Miller pointed out that the latest numbers in the NCAA transfer portal essentially show “25 percent of the pie missing” in terms of quality veteran players because of a reduction in numbers of those with an extra year of eligibility from the COVID-19 eligibility rules.

He said that as “wild” as everyone considered this men’s basketball portal to set up the 2025-26 season, there was a missing notion.

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“One thing that’s definitely going to change, and I don’t think it’s talked a lot about in basketball, is the no COVID year,” Miller said. “In our case, we had a number of players in my three years at Xavier that were exercising their fifth year. It’s a year that doesn’t exist right now.”

He said this probably will end up hurting the power conferences with the most to spend, as there’s simply less veteran, high-end talent available.

“I think just that alone, taking that one layer of talent, where you can convince an All-SEC player to return for a fifth year, and now that that’s not in play, I don’t think our league will remain as old,” Miller said. “So I think just with that alone, I don’t know if 14 of 16 [bids], I hope, but I can certainly see the effect of that moving forward.

“Even in the Final Four, when you looked closely at Auburn and Florida, two remarkable rosters, part of their greatness was that they had this gift of a blend of talent, but their older players, they were a big part of their success.”

SEC commissioner Greg Sankey told ESPN in March that the conference’s season was a “unicorn.” He’s looking for another, as he said the goal for the league is to get 16 men’s basketball teams in the NCAA tournament.

“So that’s what I expect,” Sankey said. “Is it a failure that we only had 14? I thought it was pretty cool. Can we do that again? You walk in the room of coaches … we got a heck of a roster of men’s basketball coaches and I can say that about a lot of sports. And when you look back 10 years, [it’s a] very different dynamic as far as that roster of coaches. So I think there’s a chance to compete at a high level.”

Florida has fortified its roster with the return of star forward Alex Condon, and should be in the conversation to repeat as champion.

Gators coach Todd Golden said he was unsure if the league could get 14 bids again, but he was confident the SEC was primed for a run of overall dominance.

“I think the league will be very good again, this coming year, I do,” he said. “The teams have recruited well, and we’re the premier basketball conference right now. I think it’s pretty clear. So will it be as elite as it was this past year? I’m not sure … but I do think we have a chance to have another great year.”