The 2026-27 college basketball season begins in less than a month, which means preseason predictions, polls and accolades are starting to trickle out before the season starts next month. On Monday, the SEC released its preseason poll ahead of the conference's media day this week, and, unsurprisingly, Florida was picked to win the conference. The Gators will be the favorite to win the SEC and the national title this season.
And when the preseason AP Top 25 poll is released next week, Florida is expected to occupy the top spot. Florida had an incredible offseason of retention after bringing back four starters (Thomas Haugh, Rueben Chinyelu, Boogie Fland and Alex Condon) from a team that earned a No. 1 seed in the NCAA Tournament for the second consecutive season. While Florida is the overwhelming favorite, other teams in the conference are expected to make noise.
Among them is Texas, which was picked to finish No. 2 in the preseason SEC poll. The Longhorns reached the Sweet 16 in Sean Miller's first season with the program and are expected to open the season ranked somewhere inside the top 10 of the AP poll. Arkansas, Tennessee and Alabama rounded out the top five of the poll.
LSU, which is led by Will Wade, was notably picked to finish No. 14 in the SEC. The Tigers have question marks surrounding their roster, with a handful of players currently in eligibility limbo. Here is the full SEC media poll, followed by the breakdown of overrated and underrated teams and players.
In our preseason predictions at CBS Sports, I ended up being the lowest on the Crimson Tide. Alabama was picked as high as fourth in the SEC and as low as eighth in our CBS predictions. Here is what we know about Alabama heading into the season: the Crimson Tide will be elite offensively.
That was on display during Alabama's first scrimmage of the season, where Brandon Garrison received high praise from coach Nate Oats. Why am I lower on Alabama? I simply like the teams in the SEC ranked slightly below them more.
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