Fourteen teams reached the 2025 NCAA Tournament, which broke the record (previously held by the Big East in 2011) for the most teams to qualify for the Big Dance from a single conference. Auburn and Florida reached the Final Four in San Antonio, and the Gators were the last team standing after a dramatic win over Houston in the title game. The stars are aligning for the SEC to once again make some serious noise in March.
Florida is projected to open the season as the preseason AP Top 25 top-ranked team. Texas and Kentucky will likely be ranked somewhere within the top 10, while Arkansas, Tennessee and Alabama are near locks to land somewhere in the initial top 25. Florida is the team to beat in the SEC and has arguably the best "Big Three" in the sport: Thomas Haugh, Alex Condon and Rueben Chinyelu.
Texas has loaded up in the transfer portal heading into Year 2 of the Sean Miller era. The Longhorns supplemented its roster with a key addition late after Marcus Spears Jr., the top-ranked player in the 2027 recruiting cycle by 247Sports, reclassified to join the Texas program in time for this season. Kentucky will be a popular pick to finish at the top of the SEC after landing Iowa State sharpshooter Milan Momcilovic and, most recently, former Missouri star Mark Mitchell, after he was granted an additional year through a temporary restraining order.
The Wildcats have the top-ranked transfer class in the 247Sports rankings. Florida is currently No. 1 in Gary Parrish's Top 25 and 1 and will be the overwhelming favorite to win the SEC, but there could always be drama and chaos. Our CBS Sports writers are making the case for the top SEC contenders and why/how they would win the conference in 2027.
I wouldn't consider Florida a lock to win the SEC, because we've seen a preseason No. 1 team actually miss the entire NCAA Tournament before. Sports are weird and often unpredictable. An injury or two can obviously derail anybody's season.
Nothing is guaranteed once the ball is in the air. But, with that acknowledged, the Gators should clearly be the on-paper favorite this preseason after returning six of the top seven scorers from a team that won the SEC by three games and secured a No. 1 seed in the 2026 NCAA Tournament. The only player Florida lost who averaged more than 4.1 points was Xaivian Lee.
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