Where Vanderbilt Basketball is in ESPN’s Newest Bracket Projection: The Anchor
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The SEC has two weeks remaining in the regular season before the SEC Tournament takes place in mid-March ahead of Selection Sunday on March 15. With the number of games dwindling down, bracketology projections continue to update, including ESPN’s.
ESPN bracketologist Joe Lunardi released his latest NCAA Tournament projection Tuesday morning ahead of this week’s SEC matchups. In the projection, Lunardi has Vanderbilt as a No. 5 seed against No. 12 seed Belmont in the first round in Tampa Bay, Florida. If Vanderbilt would win, the Commodores would play either No. 4 seed Virginia or No. 13 seed Stephen F. Austin.
Vanderbilt being on the 5-seed line is not much of a surprise. In fact, it is a precise projection for Vanderbilt to be that seed. In the selection committee’s NCAA Tournament Bracket Preview, Vanderbilt was listed as a No. 4 seed as the 15th overall team. That projection was put out before Vanderbilt lost to Tennessee.
With the loss, it is plausible that Vanderbilt fell off the 4-seed line down to the 5-seed line not just in the eyes of bracketologists, but in the eyes of the selection committee as well. But Vanderbilt still has time to change that. With four games remaining in the regular season and chances to stack wins in the SEC Tournament, the Commodores have opportunities ahead of them to put them in the best possible position to go on a run in March.
It is a big week for Vanderbilt basketball and it all starts tonight as it hosts its final home game of the season against Georgia before going to Kentucky Saturday afternoon.
Countdown to Vanderbilt’s 2026 Football Season Opener
192 days
The Anchor: Wednesday, Feb. 25, 2026
- Class of 2027 four-star linebacker recruit Aroson Randle Jr. announced that Vanderbilt football linebackers coach Nick Lezynski gave him an offer.
- Heading into Tuesday night’s SEC game’s Vanderbilt basketball would be the No. 8 seed if the SEC Tournament started this week. The Commodores are in a four-way tie for sixth with Missouri, Texas and Kentucky. Vanderbilt would be the third team in that tie.
- College basketball analytics statistician Evan Miyawaka created a graphic analyzing teams efficiency landscape by each team’s offensive and defensive efficiency, applying a team’s potential NCAA Tournament ceiling from a team’s efficiency. Vanderbilt was rated as a team that had Final Four Potential due to its overall team efficiency.
Tuesday’s Commodores Results
Vanderbilt baseball (beat/lost to) Evansville (score).
Wednesday’s Commodores Schedule
No. 25 Vanderbilt men’s basketball vs. Georgia, 6 p.m. CT on SEC Network.
Commodores Quote of The Day
"Games like this change your life."Diego Pavia after beating No. 1 Alabama
We’ll Leave You With This…
STATE OF THE UNION PODCAST 🎙️
— Dylan Tovitz (@dtovitz) February 23, 2026
Back on our regular Monday schedule, @joey_dwy and I dive into what went wrong for Vanderbilt Basketball this week and the engine driving the VandyBoys’ offensive surge on @VandyOnSI.
WATCH: https://t.co/ZZbVxpyRF3
LISTEN: https://t.co/E5AE8bGA4A pic.twitter.com/VFipwcDsK4
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Graham Baakko is a writer for Vanderbilt Commodores On SI, primarily covering football, basketball and baseball. Graham is a recent graduate from the University of Alabama, where he wrote for The Crimson White, WVUA-FM, WVUA 23 as he covered a variety of Crimson Tide sports. He also covered South Carolina athletics as a sportswriting intern for GamecockCentral.
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