The 2026 SEC Tournament officially begins in Nashville on Wednesday afternoon, with eight teams fighting to advance to Thursday’s round of games with a win in the first round. All games from the tournament will be played in Bridgestone Arena.
An exciting regular-season slate from the SEC has set the stage for this week’s tournament in the Music City. But the question on everyone’s mind is whether anyone can slow down the 1-seed Florida Gators. Todd Golden’s blue-and-orange squad achieved a 16-2 conference record and closed down the season with 11 straight wins, including against three ranked teams.
Florida leads the pack as the favorites to cut down the nets in Nashville on Sunday.
Wednesday’s slate of games will feature 9-seed Kentucky vs 16-seed LSU, 10-seed Texas vs 15-seed Ole Miss, 11-seed Oklahoma vs 14-seed South Carolina, and 12-seed Auburn vs 13-seed Mississippi State.
Florida, Alabama, Arkansas, and Vanderbilt earned the top four seeds in the tournament and received a double-bye in the event. Those four teams will begin their road on Friday. Tennessee, Texas A&M, Georgia, and Missouri all earned the single-bye in the tournament and will begin their path on Thursday.
Everything will lead up to Sunday’s SEC Tournament championship on Sunday afternoon at 1:00 p.m. ET.
Here’s a look at the SEC Tournament odds:
More From RTI: Where Tennessee Basketball’s National Title Odds Sit Heading into the SEC Tournament
Tennessee Basketball’s path to Sunday begins with a game against either 12-seed Auburn or 13-seed Mississippi State on Thursday afternoon. From there, the Vols would face off against 4-seed Vanderbilt in a rubber match of their regular-season split on Friday. If Tennessee can get past the Commodores, the Vols would be set for a Saturday matchup with 1-seed Florida in the semi-finals.
The question with Tennessee revolves around the health of star freshman Nate Ament, who suffered an ankle injury in the third-to-last game of the regular season against Alabama. He did not play against South Carolina and Vanderbilt in the final two games of the regular season, but head coach Rick Barnes believes that Ament could be making his return for the tournament after an extended stretch of rest.
“He’s okay. He did some more,” Barnes said of Ament on Tuesday. “He did some things with Chad (Newman) the last couple days and I think he’ll see a little bit more today. But still, we’ll just see. He has been doing more with Chad running and ‘G’ (Garrett Medenwald), those type things. He’ll probably push a little bit more today and see how he responds from it.”
Tennessee Basketball has odds to win the SEC Tournament and odds to win the NCAA National Championship.
Stay tuned to Rocky Top Insider for more Tennessee Basketball coverage leading into their run in the SEC Tournament this week in Nashville.
More to follow: College Basketball Betting Sites
The 2026 SEC Tournament Bracket. pic.twitter.com/8xqUkqnQLr
— Jon Rothstein (@JonRothstein) March 8, 2026
