One is the loneliest number. Mississippi State is the only current longstanding SEC member without a team national championship in any sport. That could change starting tonight, when Mississippi State begins the College World Series championship best-of-three final. Even Ole Miss (football), Vanderbilt (bowling) and ex-SEC member Tulane (men's tennis) won national titles as SEC members.
Newcomer Texas A&M won its first national title this year as an SEC member, with a shared trophy in men's outdoor track and field. (The Aggies have 11 NCAA titles in their history.) Missouri, the other SEC rookie, hasn't won a national title since men's indoor track in 1965.
Mississippi State has one of the more storied SEC baseball programs. But the closest the Bulldogs came was a fourth-place finish in 1985 with a star-studded team of future major league All-Stars Rafael Palmeiro, Will Clark, Bobby Thigpen and Jeff Brantley.
UCLA's opponent in tonight's championship series is UCLA, which has won a record 108 national championships in team sports. Mississippi State would just gladly accept its first.
So far, the SEC has won seven national titles in 2012-13: Alabama in football and men's golf; Arkansas in men's indoor track; Texas A&M/Florida in men's outdoor track; Florida in women's gymnastics; Georgia in women's swimming; and Auburn in equestrian. The SEC won nine titles last year, its most since 1998-99.
Members of the Pac-12 have eight national titles this year. The Pac-12 count includes two skiing championships by Colorado, which competes in that sport for a different conference.
The Pac-12 consistently wins the most team national championships. The SEC hasn't had more titles than the Pac-12 in a single year since 1998-99.
If Mississippi State wins the College World Series, the SEC would own 58 percent of the national titles in baseball, football and men's basketball since 2005-06. The current scoreboard in those sports reads: SEC 13, Pac-12 3, Big 12 2, ACC 2, Big East 2, WAC 1, Big Ten 0.
Eight of the 14 SEC members have won a national title in football, men's basketball, women's basketball or baseball -- call them the Big Four sports -- since 2005-06. Mississippi State could make it nine of 14.
The Big Ten hasn't won one title in any of those sports since 2002-03. Yet in the SEC, only Mississippi State, Ole Miss, Georgia, Arkansas, Vanderbilt and Missouri are without a Big Four national title during the past eight years.
When this SEC dynasty started in 2005-06, only two SEC schools ranked in the top 10 nationally in athletic revenue: No. 5 Florida ($82.4 million) and No. 6 Georgia ($79.2 million). By 2011-12, current SEC members comprised half of the top 10 with No. 4 Alabama ($124.9 million), No. 5 Florida ($120.8 million), No. 6 Texas A&M ($119.8 million), No. 7 LSU ($114.8 million) and No. 10 Auburn ($106 million).
