This is an opinion piece.

This is great. This is wonderful. This is the stuff that hoop dreams are made of. This is not quite basketball heaven, but you can see it from here to Newark to Atlanta and back. This is not unprecedented, but it’s as rare as an SEC basketball coach banking a larger salary than his football counterpart.

It’s also not enough. Not near enough.

Not for the University of Alabama.

Not for Auburn University.

Not for the basketball state of Alabama.

If the road to the Final Four ends here, in the East Regional semifinal this evening for Alabama or in Friday night’s South Regional semifinal for Auburn – or, perish the thought, for both – it will feel like someone took a wrong turn onto an unfinished stretch of interstate and plunged into the abyss.

Alabama as a 2 seed is not supposed to lose to a 6 seed in BYU.

Auburn as the No. 1 overall seed is not supposed to lose to a 5 seed in Michigan.

The NCAA Tournament is not supposed to continue on to the Elite Eight and beyond without Mark Sears and Johni Broome, without Nate Oats and Bruce Pearl, without the two teams that played the first 1 vs. 2 game in SEC history just six weeks ago.

Alabama started this season ranked No. 2 in the AP poll and never dropped out of the top 10. Auburn began at No. 11, immediately jumped to No. 5 and then No. 4 and never fell lower, a school-record run that included eight straight weeks at No. 1.

With both teams playing in the Sweet 16 together for just the third time, for the first time since 1986, it’s tempting to say it’s Final Four or bust for each. No one saw this 1-2 punch coming back then. Most everyone sees this dance going one step farther. At least.

Getting to the final weekend wouldn’t be a novelty for the Tide or Tigers. The problem is the word “bust.”

No Alabama season that earns a No. 2 seed in the NCAA Tournament and reaches 25 victories and the Sweet 16 for a third straight year can be fairly considered a bust. Ditto for an Auburn season that ties the school record with 30 victories and includes the program’s first No. 1 overall NCAA Tournament seed and an SEC regular-season title in a year the league sent a record 14 teams to the Big Dance and seven to the Sweet 16.

No matter what happens tonight against BYU, Sears will always have the floater to beat Auburn as part of a first-team All-American season. No matter what occurs Friday night against Michigan, Broome will always be the Sporting News national player of the year. But these programs have set a standard they now expect to sustain them to the second weekend of March Madness and beyond.

Their collective accomplishments for the better part of a decade would’ve felt like a fever dream a decade ago.

They have combined to win nine of 15 SEC championships in the last eight years, seven of 10 in the last five seasons. Since Oats got to Tuscaloosa, Alabama has won 144 games. So has Auburn. No one in the conference has won as many although Tennessee is just one win behind.

The IBOB adversaries have reached that rare atmosphere where virtually every victory is expected and every fan is gutted by each defeat. So of course Alabama should get back to the Elite Eight for a second straight year with a returning core of Sears and Grant Nelson in their final college seasons with a surrounding cast that makes them the No. 1 scoring team in the country.

Naturally, Auburn should return to the Elite Eight for the first time since 2019 with a familiar foundation of Broome, Dylan Cardwell, Denver Jones and Chad Baker-Mazara fortified by a deep rotation that fills every need for a team that’s No. 1 in the nation in Strength of Record.

Neither Alabama nor Auburn has to act like they’ve been here before. There’s no acting required. If this is a new experience for freshman phenoms Labaron Philon and Tahaad Pettiford, well, it’s familiar territory for the brands.

Neither rival has to play a perfect game to survive and advance. When Alabama reaches or even approaches its ceiling, it’s good enough to beat Houston on a neutral floor and Auburn on Senior Day in the Jungle. BYU is not Houston. In fact, BYU is 0-2 against Kelvin Sampson and company.

When Auburn achieves or approximates maximum efficiency, it’s good enough to beat Houston in Houston and Alabama in Tuscaloosa in the most hyped Iron Bowl of Basketball ever. Michigan is not Houston. State Farm Arena is not Coleman Coliseum. Quite the opposite. It will look, feel and sound a lot like the Jungle given the short drive from Auburn to Atlanta.

So there is every reason to believe that, for the third time each, Alabama and Auburn will advance to the Elite Eight, and for the first time, they will do it together. If either of them stumbles before the regional finals, it will not render this season a bust. It will mean the losing team didn’t do everything it was capable of doing and fell short of the horizon within its grasp.

It’s time for Alabama to take the next step toward history and for Auburn to do the same. This season has been too good and too special with too much historic potential – some fulfilled and some unfinished – for it to end right here.

We should see them both in the Elite Eight.