Reacting to Alabama's Placement in SEC Preseason Softball Poll: Just a Minute

Was the Crimson Tide rated too high, too low or just right?

Alabama Softball Player Salen Hawkins (47) in action against Mercer at Rhoads Stadium in Tuscaloosa, AL on Saturday, Oct 25, 2025. | UA Athletics

Welcome to BamaCentral’s "Just a Minute," a video series featuring BamaCentral's Alabama beat writers. Multiple times per week, the writers will group up or film solo to provide their take on a topic concerning the Crimson Tide or the landscape of college sports.

Watch the above video as BamaCentral assistant editor and softball writer Katie Windham reacts to Alabama softball's placement in the Preseason SEC Coaches Poll.

Alabama was picked to finish ninth in the SEC by the league's coaches in the preseason poll that was released Thursday morning. Historically, the Crimson Tide has been one of the most dominant programs in the conference. Every year from 2008-2019, either Alabama or Florida won the regular season crown.

But as more teams have invested in softball across the league along with different transfer rules, NIL and the additions of Texas and Oklahoma, the SEC now has much more parity in softball. Fourteen of the 15 teams (Vanderbilt doesn't have a program) made the NCAA tournament last season with seven of the top-eight national seeds coming from the conference, including the eventual national champion Texas.

Alabama's last SEC tournament title came in 2021, and the last regular season title was in 2019. Oklahoma won the regular season title last season, and the Sooners and Texas A&M were crowned co-tournament champions after inclement weather cancelled the game.

The Crimson Tide's placement in the bottom half of the SEC in the preseason poll is less of an indictment on where coaches necessarily think Alabama will finish, but more so showing the depth of the SEC as a whole. Alabama is coming off a 40-23 (12-12 SEC) season.

Alabama head coach Patrick Murphy is never worried about expectations, but his teams always have something to prove. It is a manageable SEC slate for the Crimson Tide with five of its eight conference series against teams predicted to finish lower than Alabama, but Team 30 will also have to face the defending national champions, Tennessee and Arkansas.

2026 SEC Softball Preseason Coaches Poll

(Preseason ranking, team, first-place votes, points received)

1. Texas (9)- 189
2. Oklahoma (6)- 186
3. Tennessee- 166
4. Florida- 144
5. Arkansas- 137
6. Texas A&M- 125
7. LSU- 119
8. Georgia- 105
9. Alabama- 94
10. South Carolina- 90
11. Mississippi State- 65
12. Auburn- 55
13. Ole Miss- 51
14. Missouri- 32
15. Kentucky- 17

Check out the latest episode of "Crimson Flame Podcast" with Alabama softball radio announcer Gray Robertson, giving his early thoughts on the Crimson Tide's 2026 season.