The SEC released its preseason predicted order of finish on Monday ahead of the 2025-26 college basketball season. Reigning national champion Florida was picked to win the league in the annual preseason poll. Meanwhile, Kentucky’s Otega Oweh was given conference Player of the Year honors after deciding to skip the 2025 NBA Draft and return to school.
Florida is coming off a dominant season en route to a national title and returns two starters (Alex Condon and Rueben Chinyelu) from that team. Despite losing All-American guard Walter Clayton Jr. to the NBA, the Gators were able to load up in the transfer portal to replace him by adding Boogie Fland from Arkansas and Xaivian Lee from Princeton.
AP Top 25 poll reactions: North Carolina overrated, Kansas underrated in preseason college basketball rankings
Cameron Salerno
Kentucky, under second-year coach Mark Pope, was picked to finish second in the poll. Tennessee, Alabama and Arkansas rounded out the top five. Auburn, a program that saw coach Bruce Pearl retire just weeks before the season began, was picked to finish sixth after reaching the Final Four for the second time in program history.
Here is the full poll, followed by overrated and underrated observations from the predicted order of finish.
SEC preseason predicted order of finish
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