With three weeks to go, we have a pair of really interesting storylines: can Kentucky go 16-0, and which teams will emerge from the total gridlock behind them? Since conference play began, the assumption has been that this was a five bid league. But right now I could see as few as four or as many as six making the dance, and nine teams have to still be entertaining being among that group in the front or the back of their minds. With an amazing seven teams between 7-3 and 5-5, this is an especially difficult ballot, so as always your comments are appreciated. Read on and watch me stunningly resist the temptation to rank the Vols ahead of Florida.

1. Kentucky - 25-1 (11-0) - RPI 3 - KenPom 2 - BPI 1

Here's the thing with this bunch: they don't feel like it because Calipari's first UK team had so much flash with John Wall and DeMarcus Cousins, who were both more unique than anyone on this current team, and that 2010 team had all the Year One newness and hype...but this is Cal's best Kentucky team, and it may not be close. The last UK team to go 16-0 in 2003, with Bogans and Fitch? This team would embarrass them. Anthony Davis is a destroyer of worlds in the paint, but you can't say, "Well, we'll just shoot threes", because they're so long with Kidd-Gilchrist and Terrence Jones they block those too. How you get consistently unaffected shots against this team is beyond me. Semi-serious question: at what point does Cal decide to throw a game because he's worried his guys got bored? I could see them losing a second round tournament game because they weren't focused (like Princeton in the first round last year), but otherwise this should absolutely be a Final Four team at worst.

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So this is the week that head-to-head results might make our ballot look a little strange. While Tennessee has faced all of the very best teams in this league this month, Kentucky is yet to play Florida, Vanderbilt, or Mississippi State. It's not that I doubt the Wildcats, but that's just one example. Florida and Vanderbilt haven't played each other either. Meanwhile Alabama has four SEC losses already, having made their trip to Starkville plus games against Vanderbilt and at Rupp. It'll all balance out in the end, but right now we're just short of the amount of games needed to not make head-to-head such a huge factor in my mind, and the three best teams in the old Eastern Division haven't even played each other once. That's getting ready to change, however.

Here's our ballot for this week - as always, feel free to agree or disagree in the comments:

1. Kentucky - 21-1 (7-0) - RPI #4 - KenPom #3

The Cats will again be the number one team in the land in the polls, but their weird SEC schedule will eventually reveal exactly how great they can be. UK hosts Tennessee on Tuesday then travels to Columbia on Saturday, meaning the Cats will be nine games into league play before they see Florida or Vanderbilt. Fear not: they get them back to back the following week.

2. Florida - 17-4 (5-1) - RPI #19 - KenPom #11

I'm of the opinion that Vanderbilt is the best of the next tier, and I think most Tennessee fans would agree given the results of each of our games against them. But there's a clear beatpath here, so this week we're going with it. Florida beat Mississippi State 69-57 on Saturday in Gainesville, and did it with incredible efficiency: 11 of 24 from the arc, 15 assists on 27 made baskets, and only five turnovers. The Gators are eighth in the nation in three point percentage, hitting 40.8% as a team. The last time an SEC team finished the year above 40% from the three point line? The second Gator National Championship team in 2007. I am becoming convinced that this Gator team is either getting bounced in the first round or going to the Final Four.

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As usual, Kentucky is at the top and the rest of the league refuses to make it easy to vote in this poll. Five tournament teams, one entering the conversation, one with an unusually high RPI...and then there's Tennessee. But we're not talking about that this week.

1. Kentucky - 19-1 (5-0) - AP #1 - RPI #5 - KenPom #5

Of course. They still don't wow quite like the 2010 team (though who does?), but they've picked up their annoying habit of maturing as a team without losing along the way. Alabama threw everything they had at them, and Kentucky still won in businesslike fashion. They're in Athens and Baton Rouge this week.

2. Mississippi State - 16-4 (3-2) - AP #18 - RPI #39 - KenPom #57

They're so hard to love. They lose to Arkansas and Ole Miss, but they beat Tennessee, Alabama, and the big prize: won at Memorial Saturday. That's enough to keep them at number two, for now. They get LSU and a trip to Gainesville this week.

3. Vanderbilt - 14-5 (4-1) - RPI #30 - KenPom #32

Almost went 2-0 in a rough week; they get the bump over Florida based on strength of schedule in-conference. The Dores won in Tuscaloosa by ten, holding Alabama to 19 points in the first half. And they played the ultimate see-saw game with Mississippi State before falling in overtime. We'll see them tomorrow night.

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Three games in, and only Kentucky and Vanderbilt are undefeated in conference play. Vandy has played three of the bottom four teams on our ballot this week, and we almost got Kentucky on Saturday. The league is strong this year, boys and girls, with three Top 15 teams in the coaches' poll and Vandy first among those also receiving votes. The league's top five teams are all seeded 8 or higher in this week's bracket matrix; last time that happened in the actual tournament draw was 2006. And with several teams in the lower half still feisty enough to make a run and/or beat you on any given night, we appear to be in for the best regular season we've seen in a long time. With divisional seeding for the SEC Tournament thrown out, every game matters and the more chaos, the better.

Here's our ballot for this week - we'll post a link to this week's results when they become available:

1. Kentucky - 17-1 (3-0) - AP #2 - RPI #9 - KenPom #5

We talked about this when it happened, but last year's Kentucky team doesn't win that game in Knoxville in mid-January. And last year's Kentucky team matured their way to the Final Four. If this team follows a similar path, they'll be there in the end; there's not a team in college basketball that looks or feels better than them right now. But they also don't have the feel of the 2010 NBA All-Rookie Team that you had to pray missed threes all night to have a chance to beat. They're the best, but the rest of the league is good enough to make them earn it.

2. Mississippi State - 15-3 (2-1) - AP #18 - RPI #40 - KenPom #56

Having seen both them and Florida, we're obviously going to give them the nod. On their best day, I think they're better than the Gators. But I also think you're going to see Florida's best day more often than you see Mississippi State's. Their post players would drive me crazy - so much potential that doesn't always materialize.

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RockyTopTalk is once again proud to be a part of the SEC Basketball Power Poll, and today we take a look at our preseason ballot and the state of the league for 2012. The poll is once again hosted by the fine folks at our SB Nation South Carolina site Garnet and Black Attack, where you can see the full results for Week Zero. Conference play begins on Saturday; Tennessee and Florida actually play the first SEC game of the year, bright and early from Knoxville at 11:00 AM ET.

If you're familiar with my work as the commissioner of the Head to Head Police in our football BlogPoll, you won't be surprised to hear that I rank these teams based on their existing body of work; it's less hypothetical/eye test and more results-based; "who has the best body of work?" over "who do I think is the best team?". Feel free to agree or disagree in the comments, that's half the fun, of course. The initial ballot was due Tuesday night, before Auburn and Tennessee got thumped on Wednesday, but I've left the rankings as is because I'm not really sure I would've changed them. And remember: there are no divisions this year, top four teams in the league get first round byes in the SEC Tournament.

1. Kentucky - 14-1 - #2 AP - #3 KenPom - #11 RPI

The Wildcats, once again of the eight man rotation, have six players averaging double figures. Hooray. You'll remember Doron Lamb (leading scorer at 14.9 and 45.1% from three) and Terrence Jones (11.2 points 6.5 rebounds 1.9 blocks per game). But 6'7" Michael Kidd-Gilchrist and 6'10" Anthony Davis are new, giving Kentucky a much bigger set of marquee players overall this year. UK beat North Carolina and lost at Indiana (their only true road game) by identical 73-72 scores. The only other team to play within ten points of them was Louisville, who fell 69-62. UK's list of victims also includes Kansas. The best team in the SEC, and the only reason they're not the best team in the nation is because Syracuse is still undefeated.

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This week the NCAA released the attendance figures for the 2010-11 college basketball season, which offer few surprises at the top:  the six largest arenas in the nation belong to Syracuse, Kentucky, BYU, Louisville, North Carolina, and Tennessee, and that's exactly who you'll find in the top six spots in attendance.  Those six arenas are the only non-NBA basketball facilities that seat over 20,000 in the country, which means you can expect to find those six teams at or near the top of the attendance chart every season, depending on exactly how good the basketball is.  For instance, even when Tennessee's attendance average dipped to 12,225 in Buzz Peterson's final season - the lowest average in the history of Thompson-Boling Arena - the Vols could still say they were 20th in the nation in attendance (under Bruce Pearl, Tennessee has been fourth or fifth every season).  Even bad basketball in a big building will still draw relatively well. 

This is why capacity percentages are a much better indicator of both the health of a program and the passion of its fans.  12,225 may have been 20th nationally in attendance, but the building was just over half-full (and you can color all of this with, "If you believe the numbers.").  Likewise, while each of the twelve SEC schools are in the Top 100 in attendance this year and seven are in the Top 50 - giving the SEC the third highest attendance totals as a conference - the capacity percentages tell a very different story.  As you'll see, most of the league teams that play in smaller arenas still did a poor job filling them up. 

Duke may be 48th nationally in attendance, but that doesn't make Cameron the 48th most difficult place to play in the country.  When a building is full or close to it, regardless of its overall size, an athletic department is happy and the basketball is usually good.

So when we take a look at the SEC's numbers, we find more of the same:  the Eastern Division flat out dominates the basketball landscape in this conference.  It's not just the huge arenas in Lexington and Knoxville.  It's good basketball throughout most of the division, and bad basketball and/or apathetic fans out West.

After the jump, we'll take a look at the SEC's overall attendance numbers, and their capacity percentages.

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Congratulations to C. Clark, who, much like UConn, came out of nowhere to win RTT's 2011 Bracket Challenge. Because we're keeping track of these things, the Pythag bracket finished a disturbing 58th. That makes one out of three years that it hasn't done well (in the top three, if I remember right), so we'll scowl and wag our finger at it and give it another chance next year.

The top ten are after the jump. Full results here. Thanks to everyone for playing.

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