The college basketball season is a month old as the calendar turns from November to December. With the new month here, the NCAA released its inaugural NET rankings of the 2025-26 season. Where did the Vols land?
Tennessee came in at No. 12 in the initial rankings after its 7-1 start to the season. The Vols are currently 1-1 in Quad 1 games this season after splitting matchups against Houston and Kansas in Las Vegas. Their win over Rutgers is currently a Quad 3 win while their five other wins are Quad 4 wins.
The Vols are the second highest ranked SEC team in the debut NET rankings. No. 4 Vanderbilt is the top-ranked team in the SEC while No. 14 Alabama, No. 15 Kentucky, No. 19 LSU, No. 30 Auburn, No. 33 Florida, No. 36 Georgia and No. 45 Arkansas all came in the top 50 of the initial rankings.
No. 96 Ole Miss, No. 99 South Carolina and No. 172 Mississippi State are the three lowest ranked SEC teams in the debut NET rankings.
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The NET rankings are important in NCAA Tournament seeding process. The NCAA Tournament committee looks at Quad wins when considering seeding. It’s the most important metric the committee uses when determining its bracket.
Tennessee has an opportunity for a Quad 2 win early this week when they travel to Syracuse to face the Orange (No. 90) in a true road game as part of the ACC-SEC Challenge. The Vols will have two Quad 1 opportunities after that when they face No. 24 Illinois in a neutral site game and No. 9 Louisville in a home game.
It’s been a strong start to the season for Tennessee with five easy wins in buy games, a dominant effort against Rutgers and then a marquee win over then-No. 3 Houston. The Vols lost their last game out, blowing a double-digit second half lead against Kansas.
Ja’Kobi Gillespie is leading Tennessee with 18.5 points and 5.3 assists per game. Nate Ament is not far behind, averaging 17.9 points and 7.6 rebounds per game. JP Estrella is the third other double-digit scorer, averaging 12 points and five rebounds per game.
