We've already heard about some of Mike Slive's planned proposals for the SEC meetings, and here comes another one. He's going to present the concept of ditching the league's basketball divisions and expanding the conference season from 16 to 18 games.
The idea is not without merit. The main impetus appears to be the mess than the divisions can make of SEC Tournament seeding. This season presented a great example. Vanderbilt was ranked No. 18 with a 23-11 (9-7) record, but it had to play in the first round thanks to being third in the East division. Meanwhile Mississippi State finished second in the West, so it got a first round bye despite its 17-14 (9-7) record. Vandy even won the head-to-head matchup. There's no reason other than the divisional rules as to why the Commodores should have been playing while the Bulldogs didn't.
On top of that, Alabama missed the NCAA Tournament despite going 12-4 in conference play. Now, the Crimson Tide had some heinous non-conference losses that definitely contributed to the NIT bid. However, the Elephants also played in the much weaker division and had fewer chances to get big wins in the league.
The conference has discussed these measures without adopting them before, so there's no guarantee we'll have no divisions next year. At the least, we know it's going up for discussion again.