The SEC begins the 2025-26 women’s college basketball season with three teams ranked in the top five, five in the top 10 and eight in the top 25.
In this era of power conferences, the SEC is THE power conference. And yet, being the best conference doesn’t necessarily mean being the most-competitive conference. For all of the SEC’s depth in recent seasons, one program consistently has dominated: South Carolina. The No. 2-ranked team in the AP preseason poll, the Gamecocks are expected to, once again, finish atop the SEC, winning a fifth-straight regular-season and fourth-straight tournament title.
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So, will South Carolina again prove superior? Can Texas, LSU or another team finally knock them off? What other teams will define what happens in the SEC? Here’s a break down of the five biggest questions about the NCAA’s best conference:
Will South Carolina dominate in a different way?
The Dawn Staley Era of South Carolina dominance—which has featured nine SEC regular-season and tournament titles—has been defined by elite interior play. Beginning with A’ja Wilson, all-time bigs have powered South Carolina, with Aliyah Boston and Kamilla Cardoso following the path to prominence first forged by Wilson.
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However, if South Carolina is to make it 10 SEC regular-season and tournament titles, the backcourt might be the driving force.
With both would-be senior bigs Ashlyn Watkins and Chloe Kitts out for the season, with Watkins choosing to sit out to fully recover from her January ACL tear and Kitts having recently suffered her own ACL tear, the Gamecocks will be without expected frontcourt fixtures. While sophomore forward Joyce Edwards could blossom into the next South Carolina great, it seems more likely that the Gamecock guards, especially newcomer Ta’Niya Latson, will be most essential to South Carolina reaching their ceiling.
An absolute bucket who led the nation in scoring last season at Florida State, the senior guard will introduce a brand relentless, consistent backcourt scoring that has been rare for the Gamecocks. Combine Latson’s ability to carry a heavy scoring load with the playmaking of senior Raven Johnson, the dead-eye shooting of junior Tessa Johnson and a potential second-year leap from Maddy McDaniel and South Carolina could win just as much as ever—except in a different way.
Is Texas or LSU the bigger threat?
Once again, Texas and LSU loom as the biggest threats to South Carolina. But will they, once again, only loom?
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Thus far, neither Kim Mulkey, beginning her fifth season in Baton Rouge, nor Vic Schaefer, having rejoined the SEC with the Longhorns last season, have been able to knock Staley and the Gamecocks from their perch. Mulkey and LSU have yet to win a game against South Carolina, while Schaefer and Texas scratched one game from South Carolina in four tries last season.
Nevertheless, both programs boast teams capable of not just competing with South Carolina, but finally overtaking them.
No. 5-ranked LSU most intrigues, with junior guard MiLaysia Fulwiley making the move from Columbia to Baton Rouge to form an uber-talented trio with senior Flau’Jae Johnson and junior Mikaylah Williams. Those three not only will be bolstered by a frontcourt that now features sophomore center Kate Koval, who transferred to LSU from Notre Dame, but also the nation’s top-ranked freshman class, headlined by Grace Knox, a 6-foot-2 wing who pairs her ability to shoot the 3 with high-effort defense that is sure to earn her Mulkey’s trust.
Texas, which enters the season at No. 4 nationally, oozes experience, as Rori Harmon has returned for a fifth season to again captain the Longhorns while junior forward Madison Booker, favored to repeat as SEC Player of the Year, will be ready to again serve as Texas’ smooth-scoring star. The pair will be surrounded by the steady senior forward Kyla Oldacre and a sophomore triplet of forward Justice Carlton and guards Bryanna Preston and Jordan Lee, all of whom can take a leap. The arrivals of energetic junior forward Breya Cunningham from Arizona and shooting senior guard Ashton Judd from Missouri give Texas even more reliable contributors. And if freshman guard Aaliyah Crump can crack the rotation, she could inject the defense-first Longhorns with some extra offensive juice.
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Will Tennessee’s style be sustainable in season two?
Last season, first-year head coach Kim Caldwell imported her ultra-modern offensive and defensive systems to the SEC, revitalizing Rocky Top with a 3-heavy, high-flying offense and hyper-aggressive defense.
Will Caldwell’s strategies be even more successful the second time around? Or, will seasoned SEC coaches, now more familiar with Tennessee’s approach, be prepared with more counters that quell the effectiveness of the Lady Vols’ high-variance stylings?
Caldwell and company, beginning the season ranked No. 8, seem well-suited to show that the new-look Lady Vols were not a one-season wonder, as a roster that returns key players, foremost among them being junior wing Taylasia Cooper, senior forward Zee Spearman and senior guard Ruby Whitehorn, welcomes intriguing transfers, including senior forward Janiah Barker from UCLA, and features a freshman class headlined by Pauldo twins suggests Tennessee has the talent and depth required to again torture opponents with their relentless style of play.
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Can Aaliyah Chavez take Oklahoma to another level?
She’s ready to bring a national championship to the city of Norman.
Yes, the announcement was a bit awkward, but not absurd. Aaliyah Chavez, one of the premier recruits in the class of 2025, has the potential to take the Sooners to heights never before reached. While a 2026 national title would be a surprise, a shot at a conference crown is a reasonable aspiration for Oklahoma in their second season in the SEC.
A 5-foot-10 point guard, Chavez should enhance everything Oklahoma already wants to do, fueling the Sooners’ fast-paced transition play, draining deep 3-pointers and putting pressure on the rim with downhill drives. With Chavez’s talents complementing the interior dominance of senior center Raegan Beers, shotmaking of senior guard Payton Verhulst and high-effort hustle of junior forward Sahara Williams, the Sooners, who enter the season ranked No. 6, should, at least, have a good chance of not going winless against the SEC’s top three of South Carolina, Texas and LSU, as they did last year.
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Can another team break into the top five?
No. 12 Ole Miss, No. 19 Vanderbilt and No. 24 Kentucky round out the SEC’s top-25 teams. Which of these squads is most likely to exceed expectations and enter the top tier of conference contenders?
Ole Miss, as has been the case for much the Coach Yo Era, will be a pain to play, with senior forward Cotie McMahon, new to Oxford after three seasons at Ohio State, injecting the Rebels her brand of bully ball. At Vanderbilt, sophomore guard Mikayla Blakes will get buckets on everyone.
But don’t count out Kentucky, even though, for the first time since the 2019-20 season, Kenny Brooks will have to operate without Georgia Amoore, his former point guard who helped Brooks restore the Big Blue back to relevance in his first season in the SEC.
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Tonie Morgan, a senior transfer from Georgia Tech, will assume controls of the Kentucky offense, and paired with 6-foot-5 junior center Clara Strack, will give Brooks the pieces needed to try to create a B-list version of the Amoore and Elizabeth Kitley tandem that was at the center of his successes at Virginia Tech. With Strack, last season’s SEC Defensive Player of the Year, again anchoring things on that end, Kentucky has a solid foundation on both sides of the ball that could allow them to creep up the conference standings.
