With the conclusion of the late games on Saturday, the 2025-26 regular season is officially over. The top of the standings and these rankings look similar to how they did at the start. Even though there were plenty of ebbs and flows, Florida, Alabama, and Arkansas still found their way to the top. Only a couple of early favorites, mostly Kentucky, fell behind. On the other end of the spectrum, Georgia and Oklahoma fared far better than I originally expected. Following the end of the regular season, here are the final SEC power rankings for 2025-26:
16. Ole Miss Rebels (12-19, 4-14)
Don’t let the four SEC wins fool you. Apart from a three-game stretch early in league play, this Ole Miss team was largely uncompetitive once SEC play began. The Rebels lost 12 of their final 13 games, with only a win over Auburn last week to briefly stop the bleeding. Chris Beard’s squad quickly reverted to its old ways, picking up two more losses this week. They fell by three to Vanderbilt and then lost by three again on Saturday to South Carolina after an unguarded half-court heave. Fans in Oxford have to be happy that this season is nearly over for the Rebels. This year has been far worse than anyone imagined a few months ago.
15. LSU Tigers (15-16, 3-15)
This turned out to be a rather forgettable season for LSU. The Tigers struggled throughout conference play and ended the regular season on a three-game losing streak. The final win of the season came last week against Ole Miss; otherwise, the Tigers would have been even further behind in the standings. A double-digit loss this week to Auburn was the most questionable loss for this team down the stretch, considering just how bad Auburn had been playing. Though LSU did nearly finish the regular season on a high note, it couldn’t get past Texas A&M in a triple-overtime thriller. In what was likely a make-or-break season for Matt McMahon, finishing dead last in the standings doesn’t bode well for another season in Baton Rouge.
14. Mississippi State Bulldogs (13-18, 5-13)
Seeing Mississippi State struggle like this, especially under Chris Jans, has been strange. The Bulldogs were absolutely awful on the defensive end, which is usually Jans’s specialty. The lack of defense was on full display during the final five games of the regular season, in which the Bulldogs allowed 99 points per game - including at least 102 points in each of their final two games this week - and unsurprisingly finished with a 0-5 record. A 34-point loss at Florida set the tone for the week as MSU gave up 102 points to Georgia to finish off league play. With five consecutive losses to end the season, the gap between Mississippi State and in-state rival Ole Miss in these rankings is minuscule.
13. South Carolina Gamecocks (13-18, 4-14)
The Gamecocks picked up as many wins over the final five games of the season as they did in the prior 13. A lopsided loss to Tennessee rounded out a tough three-game stretch where South Carolina built up a three-game losing streak, including falling by 19 points in each of the last two losses. And the Gamecocks were well on their way to their fourth consecutive defeat if it weren't for Meechie Johnson nailing a wide-open from mid-court to cap the regular season off on a high note. With the buzzer-beater win, South Carolina avoided finishing last in the SEC standings for the second straight year, which should count as a positive for this team, especially when things rarely went its way.