It's media day season, meaning coaches spend at least 30 percent of their time talking about their teams -- how they have to get tougher, usually -- and 70 percent talking about why their conference is the best conference that has ever played basketball, ever, so screw you, we're all going to the NCAA tournament, shut up. Last year it was Bruce Weber on the Big Ten. This year's most notable victim of delusion? John Calipari:

No, dude. No. If this was a coach from the Big Ten, sure. The ACC, maybe. The Big East? I'd listen. But not the SEC. Come on now.

Without spending too much time on this -- because everyone knows this is silly, right? I don't have to explain why this is silly? -- let's take a preseason look at the SEC. Barring catastrophe, Kentucky, Tennessee, and Mississippi State are all tournament shoe-ins. But then things really drop off, and you get a bunch of maybe teams in the mix. Vanderbilt is the best of these teams; they have a chance to be much better than the preseason consensus would allow. But then, who? LSU? Not a sure thing, not with all that lost talent. Florida? Maybe, if Kenny Boynton is a star, but this is a pretty big maybe (and even if he is, is that enough to carry the Gators)? South Carolina? Eh. Arkansas? Eh. Alabama? No. Auburn, Ole Miss, and Georgia: no.

The usual disclaimer here is that it's not to say this couldn't happen, or that it won't. Anything can happen. But as it stands today, the SEC is not a deep conference, and any politicking to the opposite should be promptly called out for what it is. Sorry, Coach Cal, but you don't have the votes.

Related: SEC Basketball, College Basketball Media