BamaCentral's 2026 SEC Preseason Poll

Alabama Crimson Tide on SI predcits the order of finish in the Southeastern Conference prior to Media Days.

Alabama defensive giving a pep talk before warm ups of the SEC Championship on Dec. 6, 2025. | Sarah Munzenmaier/Alabama Crimson Tide on SI

SEC Media Days kicks off in Tampa, Florida on Monday morning with conference commissioner Greg Sankey. The annual event concludes the offseason for beat writers all around the SEC.

One of the traditions of Media Days in the preseason media poll. While the official preseason SEC Media Poll will come out later this week, BamaCentral's football writers made their own predictions. As Alabama enters Year 3 under head coach Kalen DeBoer, the Crimson Tide came in a tie for fifth in BamaCentral's preseason poll with Texas predicted to win the conference. The full poll is below.

This is the first year of the nine-game conference schedule in the Southeastern Conference, which means it will be even more difficult for every SEC team. It will also be even harder for any team to finish with an unblemished conference record.

Alabama was picked to finish third last season and ended up in a tie for first place, earning a berth in the 2025 SEC Championship game before losing to Georgia. The media has only correctly picked the SEC champion during the preseason 10 times in the last 33 years (dating back to the start of the SEC Championship Game in 1992.)

DeBoer will be joined by wide receiver Ryan-Coleman Williams, safety Bray Hubbard and cornerback Zabien Brown in Tampa on Wednesday for Alabama's turn at Media Days.

Hunter De Siver, Joe Gaither, Henry Sklar and Katie Windham contributed rankings for this poll.

BamaCentral 2026 SEC Preseason Poll

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

1. Texas (1)- 60
2. Georgia (2)- 58
3. Ole Miss (1)- 53
4. Texas A&M- 51
T5. Alabama- 50
T5. LSU- 50
7. Oklahoma- 42
8. Tennessee- 34
9. Florida- 32
10. South Carolina- 27
11. Missouri- 22
12. Vanderbilt- 20
13. Auburn- 19
14. Mississippi State- 13
15. Arkansas- 8
16. Kentucky- 5

2026 SEC Media Days Schedule

Monday, July 20
Greg Sankey
Oklahoma (Brent Venables, QB John Mateer, OL Eddy Pierre-Louis, DL Taylor Wein)
Missouri (Eli Drinkwitz, OL Cayden Green, RB Jamal Roberts, LB Nicholas Rodriguez)
Kentucky (Will Stein, S Ty Bryant, QB Kenny Minchey, TE Willie Rodriguez)
Tennessee (Josh Heupel, RB DeSean Bishop, LB Arion Carter, LB Jeremiah Telander)

Tuesday, July 21
Georgia (Kirby Smart, OL Drew Bobo, QB Gunnar Stockton, LB Raylen Wilson)
Auburn (Alex Golesh, DB Champ Anthony, QB Byrum Brown, K Alex McPherson)
Vanderbilt (Clark Lea, RB Sedrick Alexander, DL Issa Ouattara, WR Junior Sherrill)
South Carolina (Shane Beamer, WR Nyck Harbor, QB LaNorris Sellers, DB Peyton Williams)

Wednesday, July 22
Alabama (DeBoer, Brown, Coleman-Williams, Hubbard)
Florida (Jon Sumrall, RB Jadan Baugh, LB Myles Graham, WR Vernell Brown III)
Ole Miss (Pete Golding, QB Trinidad Chambliss, DT Will Echoles, RB Kewan Lacy)
Texas A&M (Mike Elko, LB Daymion Sanford, S Marcus Ratcliffe, QB Marcel Reed)

Thursday, July 23
LSU (Lane Kiffin, LB TJ Dottery, TE Trey'Dez Green, LB Whit Weeks)
Arkansas (Ryan Silverfield, OL Caden Kitler, DE Quincy Rhodes Jr., RB Sutton Smith)
Mississippi State (Jeff Lebby, WR Anthony Evans III, CB Kelley Jones, QB Kamario Taylor)
Texas (Steve Sarkisian, OL Trevor Goosby, QB Arch Manning, DE Colin Simmons)

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