No source is picking Alabama Basketball to be the SEC's best team in the 2025-26 season. The teams most chosen to lead the SEC are Kentucky, Florida, Tennessee, and Arkansas.
During the last three seasons, Alabama has lost a total of 12 regular-season conference games. That average of four per season is projected to more than double this season. The projection comes from one of college basketball's most respected computer models, provided by Ken Pomeroy.
Pomeroy's preseason rankings have the Alabama Crimson Tide as the SEC's fifth-best team. He ranks the top four as Florida, Kentucky, Tennessee, and Vanderbilt.
Bart Torvik is slightly more bullish on Alabama than Pomeroy. Torvik has the Crimson Tide going 10-8 in SEC regular-season play. But Torvik also ranks Alabama as the SEC's fifth-best team. Torvik also ranks teams based on projected effective talent, and his rankings have Alabama trailing only Kentucky and Arkansas among SEC teams.
Alabama Basketball and Early Stern Tests
It has become an unwritten rule that schedules created demonically by Nate Oats are defined as a gauntlet. Even when Oats has realized too many heavyweights too soon in a season wears down his players, he returns to his formula of early stern tests being necessary for Alabama Basketball.
Oats has done it again in the 2025-26 season. Jon Rothstein is respected for his Rothstein 45 rankings. His preseason edition includes Alabama opponents ranked No. 1 (Purdue), No. 2 (St. John's), No. 13 (Arizona), No. 18 (Gonzaga), and No. 22 (Illinois). Rothstein has the Crimson Tide ranked No. 17. Including Alabama, Rothstein has 12 SEC teams ranked in his top 45 teams.
Most Alabama beat reporters and Crimson Tide fans are optimistic about the 2025-26 season. The apparent consensus is that by February and March, Nate Oats will again have one of college basketball's best teams. College basketball, being a tournament sport, allows teams time to develop. In four of the last five seasons, Alabama has finished ranked in the top six nationally. In those five seasons, Alabama's NCAA Tournament seeding has averaged a 3-seed. Only under Nate Oats has Alabama achieved such NCAA Tournament stature.
The 2025-26 season may test the patience of Alabama fans, but there are reasons to believe that Oats can again mold an Elite Eight team or higher. Before the 2024 SEC Tournament, Alabama lost 10 games. The Crimson Tide finished in the Final Four. We define that as a sound reason to believe in Nate Oats again.