USA TODAY Sports Network 2026 preseason All-SEC football predictions

Adam Cole, Montgomery AdvertiserMon, July 20, 2026 at 5:29 PM UTC·2 min read

For the second year in a row, Texas is the preseason favorite to win the SEC football regular season title, according the USA TODAY Sports Network's predicted order of finish in 2026.

The Longhorns also led the way among the league's 16 member schools with five players players selected to the preseason All-SEC team. Five other schools — Georgia, LSU, Missouri, Oklahoma and Ole Miss — also had multiple players land All-SEC honors.

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Arkansas, Florida, Kentucky, Mississippi State and Vanderbilt were the only teams without an All-SEC preseason selection.

Texas offensive lineman Trevor Goosby and Auburn linebacker Xavier Atkins were the lone unanimous first-team selections.

Here's a rundown of the preseason ballots, voted on by 15 members of the USA TODAY Network who cover the SEC.

2026 preseason All-SEC football team

• QB: Trinidad Chambliss, Ole Miss

• RB (2): Kewan Lacy, Ole Miss; Ahmad Hardy, Missouri

• WR (2): Cam Coleman, Texas; Mario Craver, Texas A&M

• TE: Trey'Dez Green, LSU

• OL (5): Cayden Green, Missouri; Drew Bobo, Georgia; Jordan Seaton, LSU; *Trevor Goosby, Texas; Wendell Moe, Tennessee

DL (4): Colin Simmons, Texas; David Stone, Oklahoma; Dylan Stewart, South Carolina; Will Echoles, Ole Miss

LB (3): *Xavier Atkins, Auburn; Rasheem Biles, Texas; Whit Weeks, LSU

DB (4): Bray Hubbard, Alabama; Ellis Robinson, Georgia; KJ Bolden, Georgia; Zabien Brown, Alabama

K: Tate Sandell, Oklahoma

P: Grant Chadwick, LSU

All-Purpose: RB/WR Ryan Niblett, Texas

2026 preseason SEC individual awards

• SEC Coach of the Year: Steve Sarkisian, Texas

• SEC Player of the Year: QB Trinidad Chambliss, Ole Miss

• SEC Newcomer of the Year: QB Sam Leavitt, LSU

Predicted order of finish for SEC football's 2026 season

First-place votes in parenthesis

16. The All-SEC team, individual awards and predicted order of finish were selected by a panel of 15 writers who cover the league: Ryan Black (Courier-Journal), John Brice (USA TODAY), Kevin Brockway (Gainesville Sun), Adam Cole (Montgomery Advertiser), Jackson Fuller (Southwest Times Record), Colin Gay (Tuscaloosa News), Aria Gerson (The Tennessean), Sam Hutchens (The Clarion-Ledger), Lulu Kesin (Greenville News), Calum McAndrew (Columbia Daily Tribune), Sam Sklar (The Clarion-Ledger), Adam Sparks (Knoxville News Sentinel), Colton Sulley (The Oklahoman), Blake Toppmeyer (USA TODAY), and Marc Weiszer (Athens Banner-Herald).

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    Adam Cole is the Auburn athletics beat writer for the Montgomery Advertiser. He can be reached via email at acole@gannett.com or on X, the platform formerly known as Twitter, @colereporter.

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    This article originally appeared on Nashville Tennessean: USA TODAY Sports Network 2026 preseason All-SEC football predictions