re: What's the purpose of the SEC Basketball Tournament or any conference tournament?

Up until 1970s only 16 teams or so made playoffs. Half of those were dedicated, so it took something special to be selected.

At that time, the ACC was regarded as tops in basketball. They were the only conference to hold a tournament and it almost always worked out that they got two slots in the playoffs… reg season winner and tournament winner.

So…other conferences started doing it too. But shortly thereafter the NCAA started increasing number of slots so issue became moot. But…conferences were making extra money by playing extra games. So, here we are.

Tournaments have been passé for a long time… oh well.. not many people care one way or another.