See where Alabama, Auburn landed in preseason SEC basketball polls

The 2026 SEC Tipoff event is in the books as teams are in the final stages of their preseason preparations ahead of the 2026-27 college basketball season.

30 of the 32 conference basketball programs were in attendance during the media event in Mountain Brook this week with just LSU coaches Will Wade and Kim Mulkey not making appearances. But Alabama and Auburn were represented, answering some of the big questions facing their teams before the season begins.

Keep reading to see what coaches and players had to say + see where each team landed in the preseason media poll.

SEC Men’s Basketball season preview

Every men’s SEC team appears to be chasing Florida, the overwhelming favorite to win the conference and one of the national title favorites. But Alabama and Auburn hope they are not too far behind by March.

The Crimson Tide, who went 13-5 in SEC play last season, was picked to finish fifth in the conference. Coach Nate Oats said one of his team’s emphasis during the offseason was about rebounding and defense.

“We’re bigger. Hopefully it helps fix the rebounding issues. Hopefully it helps fix some of the defensive issues we’ve had… Defensively we got to get back. Four years ago we had a top-3 defense in the country. Two years before that we were top 3. If we can get our defense back up to where we had it, you know, those two years, I think we got a chance to be one of the best teams in the country.”

Nate Oats, Alabama coach

Meanwhile, Auburn is coming off a 7-11 finish in SEC play, tying its most conference losses in a season since 2015-16. The Tigers hope their returning core including Tahaad Pettiford and Kevin Overton can lead to more success in Steven Pearl’s second year at the helm.

“I can definitely say we improved on being together as a team all together, on and off the court. This year, just having a group of guys that, you know, have the same goal, same mindset, and just want to win. That’s a lot of what we have and that we built, and it’s looking well for us.”

Tahaad Pettiford, Auburn guard

Pettiford was voted to the preseason All-SEC third team, the only Auburn player to receive the preseason nod. Alabama was represented by Amari Allen who made the second team All-SEC.

Here is the full projected finish from the preseason media poll:

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

SEC Women’s Basketball Preview

Just like the men’s side, the preseason women’s poll had a consensus No. 1 team as everyone looks to chase down South Carolina.

Alabama is hoping to continue the program’s strongest run since the 20th century under new head coach Pauline Love. The Tide has made the second round of the NCAA Tournament for three straight years, the longest streak for the program since 1999.

“I have the three pillars of our program is toughness, togetherness and trust. The one thing the group has is togetherness. No matter what it looks like, they stick together. We’re hard on them, and it’s all ‘I got you,’ ‘you’re good,’ ‘I got your back.’

“That’s one thing about this group. I don’t know what it’s going to look like on the court, but I can say they’re going to do it together.”

Pauline Love, Alabama coach

Auburn is hoping to surpass expectations as well this season as the Tigers are predicted to finish 15th out of 16 teams in the preseason SEC poll.

Larry Vickers enters his second season on The Plains, looking to get the team back to the tournament for the first time since 2024.

“As we kind of go through this process now in year two and we begin to put together teams that I want to kind of be staples in Larry Vickers’ basketball teams, we just want to grow day in and day out, on the floor from top to bottom… we’ve just improved, and we’re excited about the product that we’re going to put on the floor moving forward.”

Larry Vickers, Auburn coach

Here’s the full preseason poll from the SEC media:

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