Re-Ranking The SEC Ahead Of League Play

The SEC wrapped up non-conference play on Tuesday night, with Tennessee and South Carolina closing things out with lopsided wins over mid-major foes. Now, it’s on to conference play, which begins Saturday with eight games on the schedule, starting with Kentucky vs. No. 14 Alabama at noon on ESPN.

With the calendar about to flip to a new year and league play around the corner, it’s a good time to look back at the preseason poll and re-rank the SEC based on what we know now.

First, a look at how the media predicted the order of finish in the preseason. Defending national champ Florida was picked to win the conference in 2025-26.

SEC Preseason Poll

1. Florida
2. Kentucky
3. Tennessee
4. Alabama
5. Arkansas
6. Auburn
7. Missouri
8. Ole Miss
9. Texas
10. Mississippi State
11. Vanderbilt
12. Oklahoma
13. Texas A&M
14. Georgia
15. LSU
16. South Carolina

Re-Ranking The SEC

Needless to say, that preseason order didn’t age perfectly. A few teams have surged, a few have stumbled, and a few, including Kentucky, are still trying to look like the version we thought we’d see back in October. With a full non-conference slate in the books, it’s time to reshuffle the league and see how the SEC stacks up heading into conference play this weekend.

1. VANDERBILT (13-0): Surprise! Vanderbilt is undefeated and ranked one spot outside the top-10 nationally. The Commodores are also the highest-rated SEC team in both the NET (7) and KenPom (8) after winning the Battle 4 Atlantis and building a non-conference resume with four top-50 wins, plus a road victory in OT at Memphis.
2. ALABAMA (10-3): Alabama didn’t finish non-conference play unbeaten, but the Crimson Tide still has a strong case near the top of the league. Nate Oats’ team ranks No. 14 in the NET and remains a top-20 KenPom team, even with Vandy, Tennessee, and Florida grading slightly higher in efficiency in the SEC. All three of Alabama’s losses were to top-five KenPom teams — Purdue, Gonzaga, and Arizona — and the Tide enter SEC play with one of the league’s most complete non-conference resumes, with wins over St. John’s, Illinois, and Clemson.
3. TENNESSEE (10-3): Voted No. 19 in the AP, the Vols rank inside the top 30 of both the NET (26) and KenPom (14), anchored by one of the nation’s best defenses. A three-game losing streak to Kansas, Syracuse, and Illinois briefly caused early-season panic, but Tennessee snapped out of it with a 21-point win over No. 11 Louisville and enters SEC play as one of the league’s more efficient teams.
4. FLORIDA (9-4): The defending national champions and preseason pick to win the SEC didn’t cruise through non-conference play, taking four losses along the way. Two of those came against Duke and UConn, both ranked in the AP Top 5, along with an early setback to Arizona in the season opener. Florida still ranks inside the top 25 of both the NET (23) and KenPom (13), with a neutral-site loss to unranked TCU standing out as the biggest blemish.
5. KENTUCKY (9-4): The Cats haven’t lived up to the preseason billing yet, but the resume is stronger than the record suggests. The Wildcats sit inside the top 25 of the NET (25) and remain a top-20 KenPom team, highlighted by the neutral-site win over St. John’s, the only game all season in which Kentucky had its full roster available. Now finally healthy entering SEC play, signs still point to a team firmly in the league’s top tier, though staying healthy will be key.
6. ARKANSAS (10-3): Arkansas finished non-conference play with respectable losses to Michigan State, Duke, and Houston, survived a couple of early home scares against Samford and Winthrop, and still enters SEC play with a stronger overall resume than most teams in the middle of the league. John Calipari has a couple of star freshmen in his backcourt and some key returners from a year ago, but outside shooting remains a problem for Calipari-coached teams.
7. GEORGIA (12-1): One of the biggest surprises in the league is Georgia, picked No. 14 of 16 teams in the preseason and now ranked inside the top 25 of the NET (22). The Bulldogs finished non-conference play at 12-1 and sit just outside the top 25 in KenPom (28) entering SEC action.
8. AUBURN (9-4): Auburn’s non-conference slate featured blowout losses to Michigan, Arizona, and Purdue, along with a narrow loss to Houston, in Steven Pearl’s first season.
9. LSU (12-1): LSU finished non-conference play at 12-1, with its lone loss coming to Texas Tech, but all but one of the wins came outside the NET Top 100, leaving the Tigers with an impressive record but a lighter resume entering SEC play.
10. TEXAS (9-4): Texas finished non-conference play at 9-4, with losses to Duke in the season opener, Arizona State, Virginia, and UConn, leaving the Longhorns solid but still searching for more entering SEC play. A neutral-site win over NC State is the Quad 1 win.
11. OKLAHOMA (10-3): Oklahoma finished non-conference play with three losses, losing to Gonzaga, Nebraska, and Arizona State away from home. The Sooners also had some success outside of Norman, beating Marquette, Oklahoma State, and Wake Forest in a true road game.
12. TEXAS A&M (10-3): Texas A&M took losses to Oklahoma State, UCF, and SMU, with just one win over a top-100 team in Pitt, in Bucky McMillan’s debut season with the Aggies.
13. OLE MISS (8-5): Ole Miss battled through a challenging non-conference slate with four straight losses around Thanksgiving, and another to NC State on Sunday. Offensive inconsistency showed up at times, including Travis Perry shooting 30 percent from three while averaging 16.5 minutes per game.
14. MISSOURI (10-3): After an 8-0 start to the year, Missouri lost to Notre Dame and then Kansas, plus another to Illinois before Christmas. The losses aren’t that bad. The problem is that Missouri hasn’t played a team with a pulse outside of those three games, two of which were blowouts.
15. MISSISSIPPI STATE (8-5): Mississippi State can hang its hat on a win over Memphis, but showed glaring weaknesses in losses to Iowa State, Kansas State, New Mexico, SMU, and even San Francisco.
16. SOUTH CAROLINA (9-4): Picked last in the preseason. South Carolina is last in the SEC in KenPom and the NET, so we’ll keep it consistent here. The Gamecocks stayed within 10 in their four losses, including an OT loss to Virginia Tech.