This year’s SEC continues to bolster its case as one of the strongest basketball conferences ever.

The league will send seven teams to the Sweet 16, breaking a record set by the ACC nine years ago.

Ole Miss became the seventh SEC team to advance to the NCAA tournament’s second week on Sunday evening when the Rebels handled No. 3 Iowa State in an 85-72 upset. Alabama had helped the conference tie the record hours earlier with a runaway win over seventh-seeded Saint Mary’s. (Kentucky and Florida had previously clinched their spots in the Sweet 16, as had Auburn, Tennessee and Arkansas.)

It’s no surprise that the SEC will have seven of this season’s final 16 teams. The league dominated November and December in a way few, if any, conferences ever have before. The SEC won 88.9% of its games against other conferences, amassed a 58-19 record against the other four power conferences and notched victories over the likes of Duke, Houston, Texas Tech and St. John’s.

Fourteen of the SEC’s 16 teams received NCAA tournament bids on Selection Sunday when the 68-team field was unveiled. That smashed the previous record of 11 NCAA bids from one conference, set by the Big East in 2011.

Auburn, Florida, Alabama, Tennessee, Kentucky and Texas A&M each received top-four seeds in the NCAA tournament. The only one of those teams that did not live up to its seeding was the Aggies, who blew a 10-point second-half lead against fifth-seeded Michigan in the second round on Saturday afternoon.

The SEC’s surprise Sweet 16 team is Arkansas, which only two months ago was 0-5 in league play and firmly outside the NCAA tournament picture. John Calipari’s Razorbacks have since won 12 of 17 games, culminating with Saturday’s thrilling upset of the best St. John’s team in at least two decades.