Top storylines for 2026-2027 SEC basketball season

The SEC basketball season is here. Conference play doesn't start until January, but the 16 member schools begin their seasons this week. Let's look at the top stories in the conference as the ball is tipped:

1 - Mark Pope under fire at Kentucky

Mark Pope has wobbled and buckled as Kentucky's head coach. Nothing less than a Sweet 16 will do for him and the Wildcats this coming season, unless the regular season is especially strong. Kentucky cannot be a mid-level NCAA Tournament seed and then not make the second weekend. Pope would rightly deserve to be fired if that's the outcome for Big Blue, and UK would certainly make the move to find a new coach if that does indeed happen.

2 - Florida's championship chase

Todd Golden won the national title in 2025. He won the SEC and gained a No. 1 seed in March last year. Now he brings back a fully loaded veteran squad which is preseason No. 1 and the clear favorite to win the SEC again. This is a heavyweight team, and after the bitter end to last season against Iowa in March, Florida will be hungry to get back to the Final Four. No other team feels like as much of a Final Four lock as the Gators, who will be expected to represent the Golden Standard all season in college hoops.

3 - The Arkansas freshmen

John Calipari didn't focus on the transfer portal. That's not how he does business, and Arkansas fans know that. Can Cal connect with his many freshmen and bring them along so that they are physically and mentally fresh and ready to play their best basketball in March? If the freshmen are up to the task mentally, Arkansas can finally get back to the Final Four.

4 - The Texas roster

Sean Miller won rave reviews for how he reconstructed the Texas roster. The Longhorns have been greeted with a lot of hype, but we have seen UT crumble under the weight of expectations so many times over the years. It's up to Miller to make the pieces fit.

5 - Alabama and Tennessee

Two established SEC programs were not heavyweights last season. Can either Nate Oats or Rick Barnes get their teams back to the very top of the conference, at least second behind Florida, or will Bama and the Vols finish anywhere from fifth to seventh in the conference? Real doubts exist for these two programs.

6 - Will Wade and the black hat

Will Wade is college basketball's number one villain. He is the Lane Kiffin of hoops in the SEC. Will LSU play well enough to make LSU fans relish Wade's bad-boy reputation, or will the Tigers not even merit attention in the middle of winter?

7 - Expanded NCAA Tournament gives SEC another window

The SEC put 14 teams into the 2025 NCAA Tournament, but that edition of March Madness had just 68 teams. To be brutally honest, if the SEC doesn't get at least 13 teams into the 2027 Big Dance with its new 76-team field, it will rate as a disappointment. 

8 - SEC improvement

The SEC should get at least 13 teams into a 76-team March Madness field because this conference should be better than it was last year. The 2026 SEC lost too much talent from 2025, making it impossible to come close to the 2025 standard of excellence. Now that the 2027 season is here, the SEC should be better and get back to exceeding a dozen March Madness teams.