Where Tennessee Landed In Baseball America’s Preseason Rankings

Tennessee baseball before game one of the CWS Finals vs. Texas A&M // Photo via UT Athletics

The college baseball season is less than three weeks away and more-and-more preseason rankings are coming out.

The latest is Baseball America who released its preseason top 25 on Monday morning. Tennessee comes in at No. 3 in the rankings behind a pair of SEC teams.

Tennessee is one of 10 SEC teams in the top 25 rankings with No. 1 Texas A&M and No. 2 LSU coming in ahead of the Vols while No. 4 Arkansas, No. 7 Florida, No. 11 Georgia, No. 14 Texas, No. 15 Vanderbilt, No. 18 Mississippi State and No. 20 Kentucky come in behind them.

Tony Vitello’s eighth Tennessee team has six SEC series against preseason top 25 teams, hosting Florida in its SEC opening series as well as hosting rival Vanderbilt and Texas A&M in a rematch of the College World Series final series. The Vols also have road trips to LSU and Arkansas in two of their final four series of the regular season.

Tennessee also has a pair of lone matchups against preseason top 25 teams in non conference play. The Vols will face both No. 13 Oklahoma State and No. 22 Arizona in Houston as part of the Astros Foundation College Classic.

More From RTI: D1Baseball Leaves Tennessee Out Of Preseason All-American Teams

The Vols are coming off its first ever National Championship and one of the best seasons in SEC history. Tennessee’s 2024 team won 60 games, including the SEC Regular-Season Championship and SEC Tournament Championship on the way to the National Championship.

Tennessee lost an abundance of key players from last season’s title team including Christian Moore, Blake Burke, Billy Amick, Dylan Dreiling and Kavares Tears at the plate. On the mound, Tennessee lost key arms including Drew Beam, Zander Sechrist, Kirby Connell, Aaron Combs and AJ Causey.

Still, expectations are high for the 2025 Vols. Tennessee returns a handful of key players including Hunter Ensley and Dean Curley at the plate as well as Nate Snead and Dylan Loy on the mound.

Combine the returning proven Vols with young players who have flashed potential and one of the nation’s top ranked recruiting and transfer classes and Tennessee has no shortage of talent.

Most notably, Tennessee landed Ole Miss stars Liam Doyle and Andrew Fischer as well as Louisville infielder Gavin Kilen in the portal. Talented freshmen Jay Abernathy, Tegan Kuhns and Levi Clark are looking to push for roles as well.

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