The 1986 SEC men's basketball tournament took place from March 5–8, 1986 at

Rupp Arena Rupp Arena at Central Bank Center is an arena located in downtown Lexington, Kentucky, United States. Since its opening in 1976, it has been the centerpiece of Central Bank Center (formerly Lexington Center), a convention and shopping facility ...

in downtown

Lexington, Kentucky Lexington is a Consolidated city-county, consolidated city coterminous with and the county seat of Fayette County, Kentucky, United States. As of the 2020 United States census, 2020 census the city's population was 322,570, making it the List of ...

, home to the

University of Kentucky The University of Kentucky (UK, UKY, or U of K) is a Public University, public Land-grant University, land-grant research university in Lexington, Kentucky, United States. Founded in 1865 by John Bryan Bowman as the Agricultural and Mechanical ...

Wildcats men's basketball team. Kentucky won the SEC tournament championship title and the SEC's automatic bid to the 1986 NCAA Men's Division I Basketball tournament by defeating Alabama 83–72.1985-86 Southeastern Conference Schedule and Results , College Basketball at Sports-reference.com
/ref>
/ref> Coverage of the first round, the quarterfinals and semifinals was produced and regionally syndicated by the

Lorimar Sports Network The Lorimar Sports Network, or LSN, was an American ''ad hoc'' television network providing syndicated college football and basketball. It was based at Lorimar's original headquarters in Culver City, California, with an additional office in Dalla ...

, the sports broadcasting arm of

Lorimar-Telepictures Lorimar-Telepictures Corporation, Inc. was an entertainment company established on February 19, 1986 with the merger of Lorimar Productions, Inc. and Telepictures Corporation. Headquartered at the former Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer Studios (now Sony Pi ...

. The semifinals of this tournament marks the LSN's final broadcast before going defunct;

Jefferson-Pilot Teleproductions Lincoln National Corporation is a ''Fortune'' 200 American holding company, which operates multiple insurance and investment management businesses through subsidiary companies. Lincoln Financial Group is the marketing name for LNC and its subsi ...

would win syndication rights to SEC Basketball before the following season. The championship game in this tournament was nationally televised by

NBC The National Broadcasting Company (NBC) is an American commercial broadcast television and radio network serving as the flagship property of the NBC Entertainment division of NBCUniversal, a subsidiary of Comcast. It is one of NBCUniversal's ...

, through its sports division,

Sports Sport is a physical activity or game, often competitive and organized, that maintains or improves physical ability and skills. Sport may provide enjoyment to participants and entertainment to spectators. The number of participants in ...

Bracket

References

{{College Basketball on NBC SEC men's basketball tournament 1985–86 Southeastern Conference men's basketball season 1986 in sports in Kentucky Basketball competitions in Lexington, Kentucky College basketball tournaments in Kentucky