Lady Vols' top 25 basketball ranking entering 2026 SEC play

1 week ago 2

Tennessee (8-3) basketball last played on Dec. 22. The Lady Vols will return to action Thursday to begin Southeastern Conference play during the 2025-26 season.

Tennessee will host Florida (12-3) in a SEC opener for both schools. Tipoff between the Lady Vols and Gators is slated 2 p.m. EST at Food City Center (SEC Network+).

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The Lady Vols have recorded wins against East Tennessee State, UT Martin, Belmont, Middle Tennessee State, Coppin State, Stanford, Winthrop and Southern Indiana, while losing to North Carolina State, UCLA and Louisville during the regular season.

The latest USA TODAY Sports women’s basketball coaches poll was released Tuesday. Tennessee is down one spot and ranked No. 22.

USA TODAY Sports women’s basketball coaches poll top 25 rankings

Rank

Team

Record

PTS

1st

Prev

Chg

Hi/Lo

1

UConn

13-0

772

28

1

-

1/1

2

Texas

15-0

747

3

2

-

2/4

3

South Carolina

13-1

701

3

-

2/3

4

UCLA

12-1

675

4

-

3/4

5

LSU

14-0

649

5

-

5/5

6

Maryland

14-0

610

6

-

6/10

7

TCU

13-0

572

7

-

7/12

8

Michigan

11-1

563

8

-

8/15

9

Oklahoma

12-1

541

8

-1

6/9

10

Iowa State

13-0

515

10

-

10/18

11

Vanderbilt

13-0

431

11

-

11/21

12

Kentucky

13-1

421

12

-

12/20

13

Louisville

12-3

365

13

-

13/22

14

Iowa

11-2

358

14

-

12/23

15

North Carolina

12-3

336

15

-

8/16

16

USC

10-3

305

16

-

10/19

17

Ole Miss

13-2

280

17

-

13/17

18

Notre Dame

10-2

232

18

-

13/23

19

Michigan State

12-1

177

21

+2

19/NR

20

Ohio State

11-2

168

19

-1

19/NR

21

Baylor

11-3

163

20

-1

10/21

22

Tennessee

8-3

151

21

-1

9/22

23

Texas Tech

14-0

123

23

-

23/NR

24

Alabama

14-0

76

25

+1

24/NR

25

Nebraska

12-1

44

24

-1

24/NR

Others receiving votes

Princeton 31; Oklahoma State 20; Duke 14; West Virginia 12; Arizona State 8; Washington 6; Stanford 5; Oregon 2; South Dakota State 1; Clemson 1

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List of voters

The USA TODAY Sports Board of Coaches is made up of 31 head coaches at Division I institutions. All are members of the Women's Basketball Coaches Association. The board for the 2025-26 season: Octavia Blue, Kennesaw State; Ashleen Bracey, Illinois-Chicago; Jen Brown, Queens; Dan Burt, Duquesne; Jeff Cammon, Saint Mary’s; Fred Chmiel, Bowling Green; Janell Crayton, Bethune-Cookman; Denise Dillon, Villanova; Carrie Eighmey, South Dakota; Dalila Eshe, Yale; Heather Ezell, Wyoming; Bill Fennelly, Iowa State; Aqua Franklin, Lamar; Ty Grace, Howard; Hana Haden, Georgia Southern; Corry Irvin, Chicago State; Renee Jimenez, UC-Santa Barbara; Chris Kielsmeier, Cleveland State; Mike Lane, NJIT; Amy Mallon, Drexel; Kristen Mattio, Northern Colorado; Mike McGuire, Radford; Kim McNeill, East Carolina; Dan Nielson, Utah Valley; Shawn Poppie, Clemson; Terry Primm, Siena; Samantha Quigley Smith, Southern Illinois-Edwardsville; Shea Ralph, Vanderbilt; Jonathan Tsipis, Western Carolina; Coquese Washington, Rutgers; Trevor Woodruff, Bucknell.

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This article originally appeared on Vols Wire: Lady Vols basketball down one spot in USA TODAY Sports Coaches Poll

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